Abstract
The larvae of blow fly (Trypocalliphora braueri) are known to cause a subcutaneous myiasis in bird nestlings mainly in Nearctic species, while only a few records are available from the Palaearctic. Here, we report on infestations of this insect ectoparasite in two passerine species, Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) and Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), breeding in the Central European mountain range Krkonoše. The infestation of T. braueri parasite was relatively low in studied bird species (3.0% of infested nests in Meadow Pipit and 4.2% in Bluethroat) but varied strongly between years (0–33% of infested nests/year/species). The presence of the parasitic blow fly larvae was apparently controlled by temperature; they were found only during warm summers. The combination of parasite infection and heavy rainfalls in a critical period significantly reduced nestling survival.
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Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to Správa KRNAP, Luční Bouda and Labská Bouda for their help in arranging our stay in the Krkonoše Mountains. We thank Petr Kovařík and Aleš Svoboda for assistance in the field, Jan Vaněk, Dalibor Povolný and František Gregor for help with identification of blow fly larvae, and Arild Johnsen, Tomáš Koutný, Karel Weidinger, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 206/02/P074) and the Czech Ministry of Education (MSM6198959212 and MSM0021620828), and complies with all the current laws of the Czech Republic.
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Communicated by F. Bairlein.
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Pavel, V., Chutný, B., Petrusková, T. et al. Blow fly Trypocalliphora braueri parasitism on Meadow Pipit and Bluethroat nestlings in Central Europe. J Ornithol 149, 193–197 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0259-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0259-5