Probing the Limits of Egg Recognition Using Egg Rejection Experiments Along Phenotypic Gradients.

ABSTRACT: Brood parasites lay their eggs in other females' nests, leaving the host parents to hatch and rear their young. Studying how brood parasites manipulate hosts into raising their young and how hosts detect parasitism provide important insights in the field of coevolutionary biology. Brood parasites, such as cuckoos and cowbirds, gain an evolutionary advantage because they do not have to pay the costs of rearing their own young. However, these costs select for host defenses against all developmental stages of parasites, including eggs, their young, and adults. Egg rejection experiments are the most common method used to study host defenses. During these experiments, a researcher places an experimental egg in a host nest and monitors how hosts respond. Color is often manipulated, and the expec

SUBMITTER: Canniff L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6231696 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature