Persistence of the invasive bird-parasitic fly Philornis downsi over the host interbreeding period in the Galapagos Islands.

ABSTRACT: Many parasites of seasonally available hosts must persist through times of the year when hosts are unavailable. In tropical environments, host availability is often linked to rainfall, and adaptations of parasites to dry periods remain understudied. The bird-parasitic fly Philornis downsi has invaded the Galapagos Islands and is causing high mortality of Darwin's finches and other bird species, and the mechanisms by which it was able to invade the islands are of great interest to conservationists. In the dry lowlands, this fly persists over a seven-month cool season when availability of hosts is very limited. We tested the hypothesis that adult flies could survive from one bird-breeding season until the next by using a pterin-based age-grading method to estimate the age of P. downsi captur

SUBMITTER: Bulgarella M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8837626 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature