title: Experimental evidence of negative interspecific interactions among imago fleas: flea and host identities matter.
abstract: We investigated interspecific interactions between two flea species (Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis) via evaluation of their feeding success (the size of a blood meal and time to death after a single blood meal) when they exploited rodent hosts [Acomys cahirinus (a characteristic host of the former) or Meriones crassus (a characteristic host of the latter)] in single-species or mixed-species groups. We predicted that the negative interactions between the two fleas will result in smaller blood meals and shorter survival time in mixed- versus single-species infestations. We also predicted that the negative effect of mixed-species infestation on feeding performance would be less pronounced when fleas exploited their characteristic host rather than a non-characteristic host. When exploiting a characteristic host, P. chephrenis took larger blood meals in single- than in mixed-species groups, whereas the blood meal size in X. ramesis did not differ between treatments. When exploiting a non-characteristic host, no effect of group composition was found in either flea species. Survival time after a single blood meal was not affected by co-infestation or host species in either flea. Our results suggest context-dependence of the negative effect of co-infestation on feeding performance in fleas with the manifestation of this effect varying in dependence of flea and host species identities.
authors.affiliation: Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Inst. Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
authors.forename: Irina S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Khokhlova
authors.affiliation: Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.|Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Dlugosz
authors.affiliation: Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel. krasnov@bgu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Boris R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Krasnov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D058267:Flea Infestations / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D005849:Gerbillinae / Q000469:parasitology*; D058507:Host Specificity; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D051189:Murinae / Q000469:parasitology*; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D005423:Siphonaptera / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Blood meal size; Fleas; Interspecific interactions; Rodents