The dynamics of infection of Tribolium confusum by Hymenolepis diminuta: the influence of infective-stage density and spatial distribution
- 1 October 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Parasitology
- Vol. 79 (2), 195-207
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031182000053282
Abstract
The mean parasite burden of a population of Tribolium confusum is shown to rise to a plateau as the exposure density of infective eggs of Hymenolepis diminuta increases. The level of this plateau is shown to be dependent on the nutritional status of the host population, being depressed from approximately 18 cysticercoids/beetle in hosts which have been starved prior to experimentation, to approximately 2 cysticercoids/beetle in satiated hosts. A simple model is used to describe the shape of this infection functional response in terms of the predator–prey interaction between hosts (T. confusum) and parasite infective stages (H. diminuta eggs). The distribution of successful infections/host is shown to be over-dispersed, even when hosts are exposed to infective stages arranged in a uniform spatial pattern. The over-dispersion of parasite numbers/host is shown to become more severe as the spatial pattern of infective stages changes from under-dispersed, through random, to over-dispersed. Experimental results are discussed in relation to the dynamics of parasite–host interactions, in which infection takes place by host ingestion of a free-living infective stage.This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- The regulation of host population growth by parasitic speciesParasitology, 1978
- Regulation and Stability of Host-Parasite Population Interactions: I. Regulatory ProcessesJournal of Animal Ecology, 1978
- The Components of Arthropod Predation: I. The Prey Death-RateJournal of Animal Ecology, 1976
- An experimental study of the survival characteristics, activity and energy reserves of the hexacanths of Hymenolepis diminutaParasitology, 1975
- Random Search and Insect Population ModelsJournal of Animal Ecology, 1972
- A model of host–parasite relationshipsParasitology, 1971
- The hatching of Hymenolepis diminuta eggs and penetration of the hexacanths in Tenebrio molitor beetlesParasitology, 1971
- Host–parasite interactions of Tribolium confusum and Tribolium castaneum with Hymenolepis diminutaCanadian Journal of Zoology, 1971
- Fitting Nonlinear Models to Biological Data by Marquardt's AlgorithmEcology, 1970
- The Functional Response of Predators to Prey Density and its Role in Mimicry and Population RegulationMemoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, 1965