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Size variation in chewing lice Docophorulus coarctatus: how host size and louse population density vary together

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Abstract

Chewing lice of the species Docophorulus coarctatus were extracted from museum specimens of their host, the great grey shrike Lanius excubitor, by combing feathers from 36 freshly shot birds (shot between 1962 and 1974), and samples of ten individual lice (five female, five male) were randomly collected for measurements from each bird. Female lice were bigger than males for all studied measurements (P < 0.001 in all cases), although the size of both sexes obtained from individual hosts was positively correlated. The overall size of lice (derived from a principal components analysis) was positively correlated with the overall size of the avian host, and also with the population density of lice on the individual host. We suggest that variation in louse morphology is due to differences in selection pressure exerted by each host and by intraspecific competition due to conspecifics. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first evidence that Harrison’s rule (parasites on larger host species are often bigger than those on smaller hosts) not only works in a multispecies comparison but also within a single host–single parasite system as well.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of Natural History Department, Šarišské Museum, Bardejov, Martin Hromada and Tomasz Jazsay, for their general help. Visits of P. Tryjanowski to Bardejov were supported by a special grant from the Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University. We are indebted also to P. Zduniak, M. Hromada, M. Antczak, T. Sparks, L. Rózsa and two anonymous referees who helped us with critical comments on a previous version of the manuscript. We also would like to add an ethical note that great grey shrike individuals were shot for reasons other than parasitological studies (museum collections) and legal regulations are now completely different from the past when the material was collected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioural Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznan, Poland

    Piotr Tryjanowski

  2. Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznan, Poland

    Anetta Szczykutowicz

  3. Electron and Confocal Microscope Laboratory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznan, Poland

    Zbigniew Adamski

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  1. Piotr Tryjanowski
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  2. Anetta Szczykutowicz
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  3. Zbigniew Adamski
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Correspondence to Piotr Tryjanowski.

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Tryjanowski, P., Szczykutowicz, A. & Adamski, Z. Size variation in chewing lice Docophorulus coarctatus: how host size and louse population density vary together. Evol Ecol 21, 739–749 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-006-9148-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-006-9148-2

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