Anomotaenia brevis reads from ants with differential parasite prevalence
We investigated the effect of parasite prevalence of the cestode Anomotaenia brevis both in parasite and its ant host. Considering the fact that one might consider a single ant colony as a superorganism as much as fitness is concerned, we expected that a higher number of parasitized ants would lead to a higher strain on the colony. Besides that, we also expected this to create a higher strain on the parasites given the fact that parasitized ants rely heavily on their uninfected nestmates. Therefore a higher parasite prevalence in a colony should lead to a higher level of stress.