Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Moller A.P. (1994) Parasites as an environmental component of reproduction in birds as exemplified by the swallow Hirundo rustica. ARDEA 82 (1): 161-171
Parasites are a common environmental factor encountered by almost all organisms. Since parasites live from resources provided by their hosts, their presence is likely to interfere with costly activities such as reproduction. I review a long-term study of the effects of an haematophagous mite on the reproduction of their Swallow Hirundo rustica host. Mite numbers of Swallow nests were highly skewed with many nests containing no mites and a few nests containing large numbers. Mites were demonstrated to affect optimal clutch size, nestling growth performance, and intra-seasonal costs of reproduction of the Swallow host. A half-sib analysis of growth performance of Swallow nestlings under different levels of ectoparasitism demonstrated that there was a large genotype-environment interaction under high levels of parasitism, but none in the absence of parasites. The cost of parasitism can either be paid by the offspring (reduced survival or growth of nestlings), the parents (reduced survival or future reproductive performance), or by increased levels of resource acquisition by parents.


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