Common generalist mites do not transmit from foster parents to brood parasitic chicks

Abstract

AbstractInteractions between avian brood parasites, their hosts and their parasites provide an ideal model system for studying coevolutionary processes across multiple hierarchical levels. Despite this, how brood parasitism affects the ecology and transmission of bird ectoparasites is not well known. Here, we examined the mite fauna of great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus nests successfully parasitized and unparasitized by the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus to find whether there is vertical transmission of northern fowl mites Ornithonyssus sylviarum, a generalist blood‐feeding parasite of birds, through infected nests. Although there was no difference in the prevalence of mites between successfully parasitized and unparasitized nests, the former nests exhibited two times lower mite abundances than the latter nests. Importantly, none of the common cuckoo nestlings examined shortly before fledging carried mites, whereas the great reed warbler nestlings were infested in almost half of the contaminated nests. Thus, our results indicate that, despite their high dispersal abilities, northern fowl mites may be unable to survive or reproduce on the common cuckoo nestlings. Factors that can contribute to the observed patterns are discussed.