The level of defense against great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) parasitism in different European populations of magpie (Pica pica) depends on selection pressures due to parasitism and gene flow between populations, which suggests the existence of coevolutionary hot spots within a European metapopulation. A mosaic of coevolution is theoretically possible at small geographical scales and ...

tlsb-1%Males are often the 'sicker' sex with male biased parasitism found in a taxonomically diverse range of species. There is considerable interest in the processes that could underlie the evolution of sex-biased parasitism. Mating system differences along with differences in lifespan may play a key role. We examine whether these factors are likely to lead to male-biased parasitism through na...

Holcopasites ruthae Cooper is a cleptoparasite of Calliopsis pugionis Cockerell. At five sites, parasitism rate of host cells varied from 0 to over 30%, with an overall parasitism rate of 6.6% when data from all sites were combined. Significant influences on parasitism rate included site, nest density, and date of excavation, and density had a significant interaction with date. Together these f...

Natural enemies such as predators and parasites are known to shape intraspecific variability of behaviour and personality in natural populations, yet several key questions remain: (i) What is the relative importance of predation vs. parasitism in shaping intraspecific variation of behaviour across generations? (ii) What are the contributions of genetic and plastic effects to this behavioural di...

The corn leafhopper Dalbulus maidis (DeLong) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), transmits three important plant pathogens that adversely affect crop and ranges from the USA to Argentina. vector has a rich natural enemy complex generates high levels of parasitism, but its populations are persistent prevalent. We characterized oviposition sites D. on young plants in order verify hypothesis an strategy fo...

this study was conducted to evaluate the age-specific functional response of psyllaephagus zdeneki noyes & fallahzadeh (hymenoptera: encyrtidae) at different nymph densities of olive psyllid, euphyllura pakistanica loginova (hemiptera: psyllidae). due to parasitoid behaviour of feeding and parasitizing the host, both traits were separately explored on a daily functional response. results of...

1. In a population of American coots ( Fulica americana ) breeding in central British Columbia, Canada, some females pursued a reproductive strategy that combined nesting with laying parasitic eggs in the nests of conspecifics. To understand why only one quarter of the nesting females laid parasitically, I examined social and ecological factors that could potentially constrain nesting females f...