Abstract
The acanthocephalan parasite Acanthocephalus dirus infects the freshwater isopod Caecidotea intermedius as an intermediate host before completing its life cycle in a fish. Male C. intermedius infected by A. dirus parasites are less likely to engage in mating behavior than uninfected males but there is a significant intra-population variation in the occurrence of this behavioral change. Previous studies on uninfected isopods have shown that glycogen content is a predictor of male mating behavior and we examined whether the intra-population variation in the mating behavior of infected male C. intermedius could be explained by this relationship. A field-based behavioral experiment was used to quantify intra-population variation in male mating behavior, which showed that 50 % of infected males were responsive to females and 50 % were not responsive. Biochemical analysis of responsive and non-responsive males revealed that glycogen content was a predictor of the mating behavior for uninfected males but was not a predictor of mating behavior for infected males. For infected males, parasite intensity was a predictor of mating behavior. Males that contained more A. dirus parasites were less likely to undergo modification of mating behavior. We propose that the intra-population variation in the mating behavior of infected C. intermedius identified in nature was not mediated by host condition.
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Acknowledgments
Funding was provided by a Faculty Summer Research Grant, the University Research Council (competitive research grant), the Undergraduate Research and Assistantship Program, the Undergraduate Summer Research Program, and the Department of Biological Sciences at DePaul University. Amit Raj and Sarah Blackstock assisted in the field. The manuscript was improved significantly by comments from the anonymous reviewers.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Caddigan, S.C., Barkauskas, R.T. & Sparkes, T.C. Intra-population variation in behavior modification by the acanthocephalan Acanthocephalus dirus: are differences mediated by host condition?. Parasitol Res 113, 4307–4311 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4137-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4137-9