Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:51:20.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Abundance and stability of populations of a chewing louse, Mulcticola macrocephalus (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae), on common nighthawks, Chordeiles minor (Caprimulgiformes: Caprimulgidae) in Manitoba, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2015

Terry D. Galloway*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
Robert J. Lamb
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
*
1Corresponding author: (email: Terry_Galloway@umanitoba.ca).

Abstract

Populations of the chewing louse, Mulcticola macrocephalus (Kellogg) (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae), were investigated on its host the common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor (Forster) (Aves: Caprimulgiformes: Caprimulgidae), from 1992 to 2013 in southern Manitoba, Canada. The louse was present in all but one year with an annual prevalence of 0.52, mean intensity of 16 lice per infested bird, a ratio of 0.81 males and 1.89 nymphs to female (n=178). Intensity was the same in the first 11 and last nine years of the study, but prevalence dropped from 0.59 to 0.34 between the two decades. Population variability for annual abundance, measured as PV, was 0.49. In August, adults and newly fledged nighthawks had a prevalence of infestation similar to the adults that immigrated in the spring, but mean intensity did not reach spring levels until September–October. Samples of hosts were small in some years, reducing the precision of parameter estimates, particularly those based on ratios. The population parameters for M. macrocephalus on a native migrant host were intermediate in the ranges of parameters for four species of lice on non-migratory, introduced feral pigeons, Columba livia Gmelin (Aves: Columbiformes: Columbidae), but the distributions of M. macrocephalus among nighthawks was less severely aggregated than those from pigeons.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Subject editor: Kevin Floate

References

Brigham, R.M., Ng, J., Poulin, R.G., and Grindal, S.D. 2011. Common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). In The birds of North America online. Edited by A. Poole. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, United States of America. Available from http://bna.birds.cornell.edu.bnaproxy.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/213 [accessed 7 December 2014].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, S.E., Harbison, C.W., Slager, D.L., Peterson, A.T., Price, R.D., and Clayton, D.H. 2009. Geographic variation in the community structure of lice on western scrub-jays. Journal of Parasitology, 95: 1013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clayton, D.H. and Drown, D.M. 2001. Critical evaluation of five methods for quantifying chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera). Journal of Parasitology, 87: 12911300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clayton, D.H., Koop, J.A.H., Harbison, C.W., Moyer, B.R., and Bush, S.E. 2010. How birds combat ectoparasites. Open Ornithology Journal, 3: 4171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada 2007. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the common nighthawk Chordeiles minor in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.Google Scholar
Dunn, R.R., Harris, N.C., Colwell, R.K., Koh, L.P., and Sodhi, N.S. 2009. The sixth mass coextinction: are most endangered species parasites and mutualists? Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276: 30373045.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, M.S. 1969. Synchronized life cycles in the orange-crowned warbler and its mallophagan parasites. Ecology, 50: 315323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galloway, T.D. 2006. Ectoparasites (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae; Acari: Ixodidae) of common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor, and whip-poor-will, Caprimulgus vociferus (Caprimulgiformes: Caprimulgidae), in Manitoba. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 137: 511.Google Scholar
Galloway, T.D. and Lamb, R.J. 2014. Abundance and stability are species traits for four chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae, Philopteridae) on feral pigeons, Columba livia (Aves: Columbiformes: Columbidae). The Canadian Entomologist, 146: 444456.Google Scholar
Galloway, T.D. and Lamb, R.J. 2015. Seasonal population dynamics of four species of chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae, Philopteridae) on feral pigeons (Aves: Columbiformes: Columbidae). The Canadian Entomologist, doi:10.4039/tce.2014.84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galloway, T.D. and Palma, R.L. 2008. Serendipity with chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae, Philopteridae) infesting rock pigeons and mourning doves (Aves: Columbiformes: Columbidae) in Manitoba, with new records for North America and Canada. The Canadian Entomologist, 140: 208218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, J.P. 2006. Quantifying temporal variability in population abundances. Oikos, 115: 573581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holyoak, D.T. 2001. Nightjars and their allies. The Caprimulgiformes. Bird families of the world. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, United States of America.Google Scholar
Koh, L.P., Dunn, R.R., Sodhi, N.S., Colwell, R.K., Proctor, H.C., and Smith, V.S. 2004. Species coextinctions and the biodiversity crisis. Science, 305: 16321634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, A.G. 1981. The ecology of ectoparasitic insects. Academic Press, New York, New York, United States of America.Google Scholar
Mironov, S.V. and Galloway, T.D. 2002. Four new species of feather mites (Acari: Analgoidea). The Canadian Entomologist, 134: 605618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyer, B.R., Drown, D.M., and Clayton, D.H. 2002. Low humidity reduces ectoparasite pressure: implications for host life history evolution. Oikos, 97: 223228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nebel, S., Mills, A., McCracken, J.D., and Taylor, P.D. 2010. Declines of aerial insectivores in North America follow a geographic gradient. Avian Conservation and Ecology, 5: 1. Available from http://www.ace-eco.org/vol5/iss2/art1/ [accessed 16 May 2014].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez, J.M., Sánchez, I., and Palma, R. 2013. The dilemma of conserving parasites: the case of Felicola (Loriscola) isodoroi (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) and its host, the endangered Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). Insect Conservation and Diversity, 6: 680686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R. 1999. Body size vs abundance among parasite species: positive relationships? Ecography, 22: 246250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R. 2007a. Are there general laws in parasite ecology? Parasitology, 134: 763776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin, R. 2007b. Evolutionary ecology of parasites. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, P.W. 1980. Evolutionary biology of parasites. Monographs in Population Biology. Volume 15, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.Google Scholar
Price, R.D., Hellenthal, R.A., Palma, R.L., Johnson, K.P., and Clayton, D.H. 2003. The chewing lice: world checklist and biological overview. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication, 24 i–x+1501.Google Scholar
Rósza, L., Reiczigel, J., and Majoros, G. 2000. Quantifying parasites in samples of hosts. Journal of Parasitology, 86: 228232.Google Scholar
SYSTAT Software Inc. 2009. SYSYAT 13, statistics I. SYSTAT Software Inc., Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.Google Scholar
SYSTAT Software Inc. 2010. SigmaPlot. 11.2, SYSTAT Software, Inc., San Jose, California, United States of America.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. 1996. Apparent decline of migrant common nighthawks near Pinawa, Manitoba. The Blue Jay, 54: 3538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P. 2003. The birds of Manitoba. Manitoba Naturalists Society, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. 2009. Late-summer feeding and migration behaviour and numerical trends of common nighthawks, Chordeiles minor, near Pinawa, Manitoba, 1976–2009. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 123: 338345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar