Phylogeny affects host's weight, immune response and parasitism in damselflies and dragonflies.

ABSTRACT: Host-parasite interactions are an intriguing part of ecology, and understanding how hosts are able to withstand parasitic attacks, e.g. by allocating resources to immune defence, is important. Damselflies and dragonflies show a variety of parasitism patterns, but large-scale comparative immune defence studies are rare, and it is difficult to say what the interplay is between their immune defence and parasitism. The aim of this study was to find whether there are differences in immune response between different damselfly and dragonfly species and whether these could explain their levels of gregarine and water mite parasitism. Using an artificial pathogen, a piece of nylon filament, we measured the encapsulation response of 22 different damselfly and dragonfly species and found that (i) ther

SUBMITTER: Ilvonen JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5180119 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature