Cooler and drier conditions increase parasitism in a subtropical damselfly population.

ABSTRACT: Host-parasite interactions are impacted by climate, which may result in variation of parasitism across landscapes and time. Understanding how parasitism varies across these spatio-temporal scales is crucial to predicting how organisms will respond to and cope under a rapidly changing climate. Empirical work on how parasitism varies across climates is limited. Here, we examine the variation of parasitism across seasons and identify the likely climatic factors that explain this variation using Agriocnemis femina damselflies and Arrenurus water mite ectoparasites as a host-parasite study system. We assessed parasitism in a natural population in Sylhet, Bangladesh which is located in subtropical climate between 2021 and 2023. We calculated prevalence (proportion of infected indiv

SUBMITTER: Paul S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10828727 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature