Adult great spotted cuckoos Clamator glandarius damage the eggs of their magpie Pica pica host without removing them from the nest or eating them but by producing the death of the embryo. Observations as well as experiments were used to test several predictions of two different possibilities: great spotted cuckoo egg-damaging behavior is a parasitic tactic resulting from a direct selection proc...

One underutilized approach for bridging the gap between basic research on plant–insect–enemy interactions and applied research on biological control is to examine prey defensive characteristics as predictors of successful pest eradication by specific natural enemies. We used such a prey-based approach to compare predictors of predator and parasitoid response in natural systems to predictors of ...

background: the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, intensity, and species of internal and external parasites of native fowls from golestan province, north of iran. methods: during 2007, different organs of 26 and 24  adult female native fowls  collected   from hu­mid parts (gorgan, kord kooy, ramian and bandar gaz) and dry regions  (gonbad kavoos, and ban­dar torkaman) of golest...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Parasitism is well understood to have wide-ranging deleterious effects on host performance in species thus far characterized. Photosynthetic performance reductions have been noted in the Striga-Zea mays association; however, no such information exists for facultative hemiparasitic plants and their hosts, nor are the effects of host species understood. METHODS Chlorophyll f...

Induced by the widespread use of social software in personal contexts, companies wish to profit from its advantages. Owing to limited IT budgets and the need to justify investments in such systems, it is important to assess the benefits of employing social software in the corporate context. In this paper, we propose conceptual models for assessing the success of two specific types of social sof...

The light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana is a key pest of wine grapes in Australia. Two parasitoids, Dolichogenidea tasmanica and Therophilus unimaculatus, attack the larval stage of this pest. D. tasmanica is dominant in vineyards, whereas T. unimaculatus is mainly active in native vegetation. We sought to understand why they differ in their use of habitats. Plants are a major componen...

Avian interspecific brood parasites differ considerably in their commitment to parasitism; 87 species are obligate brood parasites, whereas 35 species are known to be facultative brood parasites. This variation is strongly related to mode of development. Obligate parasitism is found almost exclusively in altricial species, whereas facultative interspecific parasitism is predominant in precocial...