Habitat fragmentation can disrupt communities of interacting species even if only some of the species are directly affected by fragmentation. For instance, if parasitoids disperse less well than their herbivorous hosts, habitat fragmentation may lead to higher herbivory in isolated plant patches due to the absence of the third trophic level. Community-level studies suggest that parasitoids tend...

In order to disentangle the contribution of host and parasite biology to host specificity, we compared the structure and population dynamics of the Gyrodactylus (von Nordmann, 1832) flatworm community living on sympatric three-spined Gasterosteus aculeatus L. and nine-spined Pungitius pungitius (L.) stickleback. Between April 2002 and March 2003, a small lowland creek was sampled monthly. Speci...

This study examines butterfly larval host plants, herbivory and related life history attributes within Nagpur City, India. The larval host plants of 120 butterfly species are identified and their host specificity, life form, biotope, abundance and perennation recorded; of the 126 larval host plants, most are trees (49), with fewer herbs (43), shrubs (22), climbers (7) and stem parasites (2). Th...

We report the first records of chewing lice from an isolated population of the solitary tinamou (formerly known as Tinamus solitarius pernambucensis Berla, 1946) in the Pernambuco Centre of Endemism (PCE), Brazil. All louse records previously published from the solitary tinamou came from the populations south of the São Francisco River, formerly known as Tinamus solitarius solitarius (Vieillot,...

A multivariate analysis of morphometric data suggests that the nominally pleioxenous ectoparasite, Androlaelaps rotundus, includes at least three distinct host-associated populations in Paraguay. Where multiple akodontine hosts occur sympatrically, each host species is accompanied by a morphologically distinct mite population. These host-mite associations were consistent across all localities, ...

In the present investigation, co-invasion of Lernaea parasite is reported in some fish species, collected from the Kor River Basin (Dorudzan Reservoir and Kor River), Southwest of Iran in 2010 and 2011.  Lernaea cyprinacea parasites were isolated from the external surface of eye, lips, gills, nostrils, fins, operculum and body of Alburnus mossulensis, Capoeta aculeata, Capoeta saadii (all nativ...