A5014210265- Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
- Zoonotic diseases and public health
- Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Plant and animal studies
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Helminth infection and control
- Data-Driven Disease Surveillance
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Research on scale insects
- Study of Mite Species
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Homelessness and Social Issues
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
- Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior
- Insect Utilization and Effects
- Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Parasites and Host Interactions
- Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
University of British Columbia
2022-2024
University of Otago
2019-2023
Université Laval
2017-2018
Mermithids (phylum Nematoda) and hairworms Nematomorpha) somehow drive their arthropod hosts into water, which is essential for the worms' survival after egression. The mechanisms behind this behavioural change have been investigated in hairworms, but not mermithids. Establishing a similar mechanistic basis host between these two distantly related parasitic groups would provide strong convergent evidence adaptive manipulation insight how parasites modify and/or create behaviour. Here, we...
Fear of natural enemies in non-human animals is a concept dating back to the time Darwin. Now recognized as nonconsumptive effect, ecological and evolutionary impact fear has been studied number predator-prey systems within last few decades. However, comparatively little consideration given effects that parasites have on their hosts, which evolved behaviors avoid parasites, impacting habitat selection, mate choice, foraging activity. These avoidance create "landscape disgust", wherein hosts...
Abstract Aim Determine the relative influence of geographical distance, environmental differences, and host species composition on similarity bat fly composition. Location Neotropics. Taxon Bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) flies (Diptera: Streblidae). Methods Abundance data bats ectoparasites were obtained from published studies. The influences variation (annual precipitation, temperature seasonality, elevation, NDVI), composition, geographic distance parasite community analysed with...
In an era where some find fake news around every corner, the use of sensationalism has inevitably found its way into scientific literature. This is especially case for host manipulation by parasites, a phenomenon in which parasite causes remarkable change appearance or behaviour host. concept, deservedly garnered popular interest throughout world recent years, nearly 50 years old. past two decades, metaphors, including anthropomorphisms and science fiction, to describe become more prevalent....
Abstract Diapause‐mediated dormancy in overwintering insect eggs has rarely been studied with regard to the ecological factors controlling postdiapause development. In insects of temperate latitudes, water availability at end winter, interaction temperature, could control resumption development for stages quiescence. The balsam twig aphid, M indarus abietinus Koch ( H emiptera: A phididae), overwinters as southern Québec, Canada, on fir, bies balsamea (L.) Miller P inaceae), Christmas tree...
Abstract
Certain species of parasites have the apparent ability to alter behaviour their host in order facilitate completion own life cycle. While documented hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha), for mermithid (from sister phylum Nematoda) force hosts enter water remains more enigmatic. Here, we present first experimental evidence a laboratory setting that an insect which normally never enters open (the European earwig Forficula auricularia) will readily when infected with nematode (Mermis nigrescens)....
Abstract The balsam twig aphid Mindarus abietinus Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a major pest of economic importance for the Christmas tree industry. Global warming during 21st century could potentially increase local population densities and reinforce status this in commercial fir ( Abies Miller; Pinaceae) plantations Québec, Canada. During study, we tested effects warmer environment on colony growth rates M. morph composition second generation its cycle, which key to size potential damage...
Animals adopt a range of avoidance strategies to reduce their exposure parasites and the associated cost infection. If strong selective pressures from are sustained over many generations, may gradually evolve phenotypically plastic, or individually variable, fixed, species-wide traits. Over time, host species possessing effective infection traits lose parasite species. Indeed, if overcoming is too costly, i.e. individuals that become rarely encountered difficult infect, generalist opt out...
Abstract Aim Interspecific variation among metazoans often follows a latitudinal pattern, with species at higher latitudes being larger bodied than related from lower (Bergmann's rule). For parasitic species, body sizes within any taxon are correlated the of their hosts (Harrison's Whether temperature‐driven effects or host‐driven resource constraints act independently additively to shape interspecific in parasite remains unknown. We take comparative approach test latitude and host size on...
Insects and parasites dominate the biosphere, in terms of known biodiversity mode life, respectively. Consequently, insects play a part many host-parasite systems, either as parasite, host, or both. Moreover, lot these systems involve adaptive parasite-induced changes host phenotype (typically behavior morphology), which is commonly manipulation. While manipulation have been described within last few decades, proximate mechanisms that underpin phenotypic change are still largely unknown....
Abstract Eggs of the balsam twig aphid Mindarus abietinus Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) overwinter for several months in obligate diapause, which terminates early springtime when embryogenesis stem mother supposedly resumes. Important shape and size changes were observed on eggs collected at regular intervals during late winter spring. These observations led to visual classification into three categories: flat (C1), semi-flat (C2), round turgid (C3). Egg mass significantly increased with time...