Fighting while Parasitized: Can Nematode Infections Affect the Outcome of Staged Combat in Beetles?

dc.contributor.authorVasquez, Daviden
dc.contributor.authorWilloughby, Annaen
dc.contributor.authorDavis, Andrew K.en
dc.contributor.departmentBiological Sciencesen
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-27T12:25:17Zen
dc.date.available2018-09-27T12:25:17Zen
dc.date.issued2015-04-01en
dc.description.abstractThe 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.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121614en
dc.identifier.eissn1932-6203en
dc.identifier.issue4en
dc.identifier.othere0121614en
dc.identifier.pmid25830367en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/85158en
dc.identifier.volume10en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherPLOSen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.titleFighting while Parasitized: Can Nematode Infections Affect the Outcome of Staged Combat in Beetles?en
dc.title.serialPLOS ONEen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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