Abstract
We studied the relationship between fleas’ metabolic rate and their ecological traits, using data on standard metabolic rate (SMR), mean abundance, host specificity, and geographic range size in males and females of seven desert flea species. SMR was measured via mass-specific CO2 emission, whereas host specificity was measured as (a) the mean number of host species used by a flea per region in regions where this flea was recorded; (b) the total number of host species a flea exploited across its geographic range; and (c) the phylogenetic diversity of the flea’s hosts. To control for confounding effects of phylogeny when analysing data on multiple species, we applied the Phylogenetic Generalised Least Squares (PGLS) model. We found that the only ecological trait significantly correlating with flea SMR was the phylogenetic diversity of hosts utilized by a flea across its geographic range. The strength of the association between SMR and host phylogenetic diversity was higher in male than in female fleas. We explain the relationship between flea SMR and their host specificity by the necessity of host-opportunistic species to compensate for the high energetic cost of neutralizing multiple defences from multiple hosts by increased SMR.
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We thank Sergei Burdelov for technical assistance.
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This study was supported by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (grant no. 2017001 to BRK, ISK, and LJF).
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Irina S. Khokhlova, and Laura J. Fielden collected the data. Boris R. Krasnov, Irina S. Khokhlova, and Laura J. Fielden analysed the data. Boris R. Krasnov wrote the first version of the manuscript. All authors finalized the manuscript.
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Experimental procedures met the requirements of the 1994 Law for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Experiments on Animals) of the State of Israel and were carried out under permits BGU-D-77-2006 and IL-38-07-2018 (B) of the Ben-Gurion University Committee for the Ethical Care and Use of Animals in Experiments. Field sampling has been carried out under permits 1997/1788 and 2008/31078 of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
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Khokhlova, I.S., Fielden, L.J., Shenbrot, G.I. et al. Metabolic rate and ecological traits of ectoparasites: a case study with seven flea species from the Negev Desert. Parasitol Res 122, 2317–2324 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07931-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07931-2