Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are obligate brood-parasites, that is, female cowbirds lay their eggs in nests of other species. If the cowbird eggs are accepted, the host pair may raise the young cowbird, often at a reduction of the hosts’ reproductive success. Cowbird females are also known to remove host eggs and nestlings from nests, which may also affect the reproductive success of ...

A genetic analysis of parasitic ability in the soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines was performed. To identify and characterize genes involved in parasitism, we developed three highly inbred H. glycines lines, OP20, OP25 and OP50, for use as parents for controlled crosses. Through these crosses, we have identified genes in the inbred parents that control reproduction of the nematode on hos...

Brood parasites can appreciably decrease fecundity of susceptible songbird hosts, which can often cause a decrease in host abundance. Wildlife managers use brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) management to reduce parasitism frequency and benefit the conservation of the endangered black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla); however, intensity of management needed to increase vireo abundance is not...

Parasitism, and gastrointestinal nematode parasitism in particular, is arguably the most serious constraint affecting ruminant production world-wide. Economic losses are caused by decreased production, cost of prophylaxis, cost of treatment, and the death of infected animals. It is difficult by any form of major survey or other estimation to establish precise figures on losses incurred in produ...

Identifying parasitism genes encoding proteins secreted from a nematode's esophageal gland cells and injected through its stylet into plant tissue is the key to understanding the molecular basis of nematode parasitism of plants. Meloidogyne incognita parasitism genes were cloned by microaspirating the cytoplasm from the esophageal gland cells of different parasitic stages to provide mRNA to cre...

*Correspondence: Raine Kortet, Department of Biology, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistokatu 7, PO Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland e-mail: [email protected] Animals are often individually consistent in their behavior, not only over time, but also across different functional contexts. Recent research has focused on phenotypic and evolutionary mechanisms explaining such personality dif...

ThebraconidparasitoidFopiusarisanus(Sonan)(Hymenoptera:Braconidae)isacandidate for augmentative biological control of tephritid fruit ßies. In the Puna district of Hawaii Island, F. arisanus parasitized 41Ð72% of oriental fruit ßies, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), in wild common guava, Psidium guajava L.; strawberry guava, Psidium cattleianum Sabine; and tropical almond, Terminalia catappa L. In...

We examined the effects of supplemental food sources on parasitism of turf-infesting white grubs (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) by tiphiid wasps (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae). Survival of spring active Tiphia vernalis Rohwer and late summer active Tiphia pygidialis Allen, parasitoids of Japanese beetle, Popillia japonicaNewman, andmasked chafer,Cyclocephala spp., grubs, respectively, was signiÞcantly in...

Brood parasitic birds impose variable fitness costs upon their hosts by causing the partial or complete loss of the hosts' own brood. Growing evidence from multiple avian host-parasite taxa indicates that exposure of individual hosts to parasitism is not necessarily random and varies with habitat use, nest-site selection, age or other phenotypic attributes. For instance, nonrandom patterns of b...

OBJECTIVE Describing soil-transmitted helminthiasis prevalence and trends in children aged less than 15 in the village of La Virgen, Cundinamarca. METHODS Three non-random surveys were carried out on school-children aged 0 to 15 years. Intestinal parasitism was determined In the three cross-sectional studies by direct examination of fecal samples and modified Ritchie-Frick concentration metho...