Dioctophyme renale is a nematode that can be found parasitizing the kidney, peritoneal cavity and, rarely, other organs of canids and mustelids. This disease has high occurrence in the municipality of Três Barras, state of Santa Catarina, thus making this an interesting area to study the epidemiological aspects of infection by D. renale in dogs. Among 197 dogs, 14.2% showed the parasite eggs in...

Insect societies are well-known for their advanced cooperation, but their colonies are also vulnerable to reproductive parasitism. Here, we present a novel example of an intraspecific social parasitism in a highly eusocial bee, the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris. In particular, we provide genetic evidence which shows that, upon loss of the mother queen, many colonies are invaded by unrelate...

Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in the adult mammalian bone marrow ensure blood cell renewal. Their cellular microenvironment, called 'niche', regulates hematopoiesis both under homeostatic and immune stress conditions. In the Drosophila hematopoietic organ, the lymph gland, the posterior signaling center (PSC) acts as a niche to regulate the hematopoietic response to immune stress such as ...

The interactions between brood parasitic birds and their host species provide one of the best model systems for coevolution. Despite being intensively studied, the parasite-host system provides ample opportunities to test new predictions from both coevolutionary theory as well as life-history theory in general. I identify four main areas that might be especially fruitful: cuckoo female gentes a...

Following nest destruction, the laying of physiologically committed eggs (eggs that are ovulated, yolked, and making their way through the oviduct) in the nests of other birds is considered a viable pathway for the evolution of obligate interspecific brood parasitism. While intraspecific brood parasitism in response to nest predation has been experimentally demonstrated, this pathway has yet to...

Intraguild predation (IGP) is common in communities, yet theory suggests it should not often persist and coexistence of participating species should be rare. As parasitism can play keystone roles in interactions between competitors, and between predators and prey, here we examine the role of parasites in maintaining IGP. We used numerical exploration of population dynamic equations to determine...

carob moth, ectomyelois ceratoniae zeller (lep.: pyralidae) is considered as the most important pest of pomegranate in iran causing serious damages up to 80% at pre and post harvesting stages. in this study larval parasitoids of carob moth were collected from three regions of production sites of pomegrante namely: varamin, qom, and saveh during 2007. eight species were collected from varamin, 7...

Brood parasitism has evolved repeatedly in insects, and is especially diverse within bees. Little attention has been given to the evolution of structural modiÞcations associated with parasitism, in contrast to behavior. Female parasitic bees tend to converge on a suite of characters, some of which may involve loss of characters associated with pollen-collecting or nest-making, whereas others ma...

Burrowing nematodes from Central America, Dominican Republic, Florida, Guadeloupe, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico were characterized for their ability to parasitize citrus, but citrus parasites were found only in Florida. Sequence tag sites originally amplified from a citrus-parasitic burrowing nematode were polymorphic among 37 burrowing nematode isolates and were not correlated with citrus parasitis...

For many animals, the effort to rear their young is considerable. In birds, this often includes building nests, incubating eggs, feeding the chicks, and protecting them from predators. Perhaps for this reason, about 1% of birds (around 100 species) save themselves the effort and cheat instead. They are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species and leaving the hos...