RT Journal Article
T1 Louse flies of Eleonora’s falcons that also feed on their prey are evolutionary dead‐end hosts for blood parasites
A1 Gangoso De La Colina, Laura Esther
A1 Gutiérrez López, Rafael
A1 Martínez de la Puente, Josué
A1 Figuerola, Jordi
AB Host shifts are widespread among avian haemosporidians, although the success of transmission depends upon parasite-host and parasite-vector compatibility. Insular avifaunas are typically characterized by a low prevalence and diversity of haemosporidians, although the underlying ecological and evolutionary processes remain unclear. We investigated the parasite transmission network in an insular system formed by Eleonora's falcons (the avian host), louse flies that parasitize the falcons (the potential vector), and haemosporidians (the parasites). We found a great diversity of parasites in louse flies (16 Haemoproteus and 6 Plasmodium lineages) that did not match with lineages previously found infecting adult falcons (only one shared lineage). Because Eleonora's falcon feeds on migratory passerines hunted over the ocean, we sampled falcon kills in search of the origin of parasites found in louse flies. Surprisingly, louse flies shared 10 of the 18 different parasite lineages infecting falcon kills. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that all lineages found in louse flies (including five new lineages) corresponded to Haemoproteus and Plasmodium parasites infecting Passeriformes. We found molecular evidence of louse flies feeding on passerines hunted by falcons. The lack of infection in nestlings and the mismatch between the lineages isolated in adult falcons and louse flies suggest that despite louse flies’ contact with a diverse array of parasites, no successful transmission to Eleonora's falcon occurs. This could be due to the falcons’ resistance to infection, the inability of parasites to develop in these phylogenetically distant species, or the inability of haemosporidian lineages to complete their development in louse flies.
PB Wiley
SN 0962-1083
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/111034
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/111034
LA eng
NO Gangoso L, Gutiérrez-López R, Martínez-de la Puente J, Figuerola J. Louse flies of Eleonora’s falcons that also feed on their prey are evolutionary dead-end hosts for blood parasites. Mol Ecol. 2019; 28: 1812–1825. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15020
NO This study was partly funded by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, projects CGL2012-30759 and CGL2015-65055-P from the Spanish MINECO, and the Severo Ochoa program for Centers of Excellence in R&D&I (SEV-2012-0262). During the writing of this manuscript, L.G. was supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship from the European Commission (grant number 747729, ”EcoEvoClim”), R.G.L. was supported by an FPI grant (BES-2013-065274), and J.M.P. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva contract and a 2017 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation.
NO Cabildo de Lanzarote
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Fundación BBVA
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025