Article
Ornithology
Manuel Soler, Tomas Perez-Contreras, Francisco Ruiz-Raya
Summary: Brood parasites usually lay only one egg per nest to avoid competition, but multiparasitism is surprisingly frequent in the great spotted cuckoo. This is because the cuckoo is less harmful and magpie hosts can successfully raise multiple parasitic nestlings. The total number of cuckoo chicks raised is higher in multiparasitized nests and there is no difference in magpie breeding success between single-, double-, and multiparasitized nests. The intensity of parasitism does not affect nest desertion or predation rate, suggesting that nest concealment does not impact susceptibility to parasitism and predation.
JOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Mairenn C. Attwood, Jess Lund, Chima J. Nwaogu, Collins Moya, Claire N. Spottiswoode
Summary: Parasitic birds face a trade-off when the highest quality hosts are resistant to exploitation. In this study, it was found that mimicry of hawks by African cuckoos did not deter aggressive defenses from their host, the fork-tailed drongo. However, the benefits to the cuckoos' offspring outweighed the costs of parasitizing an aggressive host.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Laura Arco, Juan Manuel Peralta-Sanchez, Manuel Martin-Vivaldi, Manuel Soler
Summary: Brood parasites lay their eggs in nests of other species, tricking hosts into raising their parasitic offspring. Hosts may fight back impeding successful parasitism by developing defenses at any of the stages of their breeding cycle. This study found that hoopoes have evolved the less common host defense: discrimination of parasite fledglings, even in the absence of their own fledgling for comparison. This suggests that discrimination during the later stages of the nesting cycle may be more common than previously assumed.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Florencia Lama, Cynthia A. Ursino, Juan Carlos Reboreda, Maria Cecilia De Marsico
Summary: Brood-parasitic screaming cowbird juveniles use vocal mimicry to deceive host baywings, who primarily rely on species-specific acoustic signals to distinguish between their own and foreign fledglings.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Attila Marton, Attila Fulop, Miklos Ban, Mark E. Hauber, Csaba Moskat
Summary: The study showed that female brood parasite calls effectively reduce the aggression of great reed warbler hosts, enabling parasites to approach the nest stealthily and avoid attacks from the larger host bird.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Mominul Islam Nahid, Virginia E. Abernathy, Wei Liang
Summary: Hosts may evolve multiple egg types to make mimicry of individual more difficult. This study used avian visual modelling, reflectance spectrophotometry, digital image analysis, and egg volume to examine egg mimicry between Klaas's cuckoo and its host, the red-chested sunbird. The red-chested sunbird has evolved two distinct egg types based on luminance, color, and pattern. This is the first objective study of egg mimicry by Klaas's cuckoo and description of egg polymorphism in the red-chested sunbird host. Further research on living populations would enhance our understanding of co-evolutionary interactions between these species.
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Virginia E. Abernathy, Emily Bonds, Hampton Warner, Wei Liang
Summary: This study quantified the degree of egg mimicry in the channel-billed cuckoo and its host species using objective measurements and avian visual modelling. The results suggest that the channel-billed cuckoo mimics the eggs of one of its primary hosts, the pied currawong, in both color and pattern. The currawongs showed higher interclutch variation in color and luminance, which could make it more difficult for the cuckoo to closely match any particular host clutch.
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Virology
Markus Bauswein, Lisa Eidenschink, Gertrud Knoll, Bernhard Neumann, Klemens Angstwurm, Saida Zoubaa, Markus J. Riemenschneider, Benedikt M. J. Lampl, Matthias Pregler, Hans Helmut Niller, Jonathan Jantsch, Andre Gessner, Yvonne Eberhardt, Gunnar Huppertz, Torsten Schramm, Stefanie Kuehn, Michael Koller, Thomas Drasch, Yvonne Ehrl, Bernhard Banas, Robert Offner, Barbara Schmidt, Miriam C. Banas
Summary: More than 40 severe cases of encephalitis caused by BoDV-1 have been reported in Germany. A seroepidemiological study was conducted in a southern German region to investigate undetected asymptomatic BoDV-1 infections. Screening using ELISA showed reactivity rates ranging from 3.5% to 18.6%, but confirmatory testing using iIFA only confirmed one positive case. It was concluded that caution should be taken when interpreting serological tests based on a single BoDV-1 antigen, and iIFA should always be performed as a confirmatory test.
Article
Entomology
Ri-Xin Jiang, Hong-Rui Zhang, K. Taro Eldredge, Xiao-Bin Song, Yan-Da Li, Erik Tihelka, Di-Ying Huang, Shuo Wang, Michael S. Engel, Chen-Yang Cai
Summary: Termites are ecologically ubiquitous eusocial insects that have complex relationships with symbionts. The discovery of new Cretaceous amber fossils provides further evidence of the association between termites and rove beetles.
