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Fitness responses to co-infestation in fleas exploiting rodent hosts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2015

IRINA S. KHOKHLOVA ,
ELIZABETH M. DLUGOSZ  and
BORIS R. KRASNOV
IRINA S. KHOKHLOVA
Affiliation:
Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 8499000 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
ELIZABETH M. DLUGOSZ
Affiliation:
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 8499000 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
BORIS R. KRASNOV*
Affiliation:
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 8499000 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel. E-mail: krasnov@bgu.ac.il
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Summary

To understand mechanisms behind positive interspecific co-occurrences in flea infracommunities, we asked whether co-infestation results in an increase of flea fitness (quantity and/or quality of the offspring). We studied reproductive performance of Xenopsylla ramesis and Parapulex chephrenis when they exploited their characteristic host (Meriones crassus and Acomys cahirinus, respectively) either alone or together with another species. We used egg production, the number of new imagoes, pre-imaginal survival and egg size as fitness-related variables and predicted that fitness will be higher in fleas feeding in mixed- than in single-species groups. In both fleas, mean number of eggs produced per female flea did not depend on experimental treatment. No effect of single- vs mixed-species infestation on the mean number of new imagoes per female and the number of emerged imagoes per egg was found for X. ramesis, whereas both these numbers were higher in mixed- than in single-species groups for P. chephrenis. X. ramesis produced eggs of similar size independently of treatment, whereas eggs produced by P. chephrenis in mixed-species groups were significantly larger than eggs produced in single-species groups. We conclude that an increase in reproductive performance as a response to co-infestation may be one of the mechanisms behind aggregative structure of flea infracommunities. However, this response may vary among flea species.

Keywords

Aggregationco-infestationfitnessinfracommunity
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 142 , Issue 12 , October 2015 , pp. 1535 - 1542
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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