Fighting while Parasitized: Can Nematode Infections Affect the Outcome of Staged Combat in Beetles?
dc.contributor.author | Vasquez, David | en |
dc.contributor.author | Willoughby, Anna | en |
dc.contributor.author | Davis, Andrew K. | en |
dc.contributor.department | Biological Sciences | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-09-27T12:25:17Z | en |
dc.date.available | 2018-09-27T12:25:17Z | en |
dc.date.issued | 2015-04-01 | en |
dc.description.abstract | The effects of non-lethal parasites may be felt most strongly when hosts engage in intense, energy-demanding behaviors. One such behavior is fighting with conspecifics, which is common among territorial animals, including many beetle species. We examined the effects of parasites on the fighting ability of a saproxylic beetle, the horned passalus (Odontotaenius disjunctus, Family: Passalidae), which is host to a non-lethal nematode, Chondronema passali. We pitted pairs of randomly-chosen (but equally-weighted) beetles against each other in a small arena and determined the winner and aggression level of fights. Then we examined beetles for the presence, and severity of nematode infections. There was a non-significant tendency (p = 0.065) for the frequency of wins, losses and draws to differ between beetles with and without C. passali; non-parasitized individuals (n = 104) won 47% of their fights while those with the parasite (n = 88) won 34%, a 13% difference in wins. The number of nematodes in a beetle affected the outcome of fights between infected and uninfected individuals in an unexpected fashion: fighting ability was lowest in beetles with the lowest (p = 0.033), not highest (p = 0.266), nematode burdens. Within-fight aggression was highest when both beetles were uninfected and lowest when both were infected (p = 0.034). Collectively, these results suggest the nematode parasite, C. passali, is associated with a modest reduction in fighting ability in horned passalus beetles, consistent with the idea that parasitized beetles have lower energy available for fighting. This study adds to a small but growing body of evidence showing how parasites negatively influence fighting behavior in animals. | en |
dc.description.version | Published version | en |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121614 | en |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1932-6203 | en |
dc.identifier.issue | 4 | en |
dc.identifier.other | e0121614 | en |
dc.identifier.pmid | 25830367 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/85158 | en |
dc.identifier.volume | 10 | en |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | PLOS | en |
dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International | en |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en |
dc.title | Fighting while Parasitized: Can Nematode Infections Affect the Outcome of Staged Combat in Beetles? | en |
dc.title.serial | PLOS ONE | en |
dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |
dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |
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