10.5061/DRYAD.DG58V
Caves, Eleanor M.
University of Cambridge
Stevens, Martin
University of Exeter
Spottiswoode, Claire N.
University of Cambridge
Data from: Does coevolution with a shared parasite drive hosts to
partition their defences among species?
Dryad
dataset
2017
Cisticola cinnamomeus
brood parasitism
Anaplectes melanotis
Cisticola fulvicapilla
Ploceus velatus
Cisticola chiniana
colour
mimicry
Euplectes capensis
Ploceus xanthops
Cisticola natalensis
Euplectes albonotatus
Ploceus intermedius
co-evolution
Plocepasser mahali
Euplectes macrourus
Phenotypic space
Cisticola juncidis
Euplectes afer
Euplectes orix
Prinia subflava
Ploceus ocularis
Ploceus cucullatus
Cisticola erythrops
Camaroptera brevicaudata
Eremomela icteropygialis
Calamonastes stierlingi
Euplectes axillaris
Bubalornis niger
Cisticola aridula
2017-05-01T13:10:05Z
2017-05-01T13:10:05Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0272
152890 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
When mimicry imposes costs on models, selection may drive the model's
phenotype to evolve away from its mimic. For example, brood parasitism
often drives hosts to diversify in egg appearance among females within a
species, making mimetic parasitic eggs easier to detect. However, when a
single parasite species exploits multiple host species, parasitism could
also drive host egg evolution away from other co-occurring hosts, to
escape susceptibility to their respective mimics. This hypothesis predicts
that sympatric hosts of the same parasite should partition egg phenotypic
space (defined by egg colour, luminance and pattern) among species to
avoid one another. We show that eggs of warbler species parasitized by the
cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis in Zambia partition phenotypic space
much more distinctly than do eggs of sympatric but unparasitized warblers.
Correspondingly, cuckoo finch host-races better match their own specialist
host than other local host species. In the weaver family, parasitized by
the diederik cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius, by contrast, parasitized species
were more closely related and overlapped extensively in phenotypic space;
correspondingly, cuckoos did not match their own host better than others.
These results suggest that coevolutionary arms races between hosts and
parasites may be shaped by the wider community context in which they
unfold.
Egg_Phenotypes_CisticolidaeThis file provides standardized values for ten
phenotypic attributes (five pattern, four color, one luminance) from the
Cisticolidae family.Egg_Phenotypes_PloceidaeThis file provides
standardized values for ten phenotypic attributes (five pattern, four
color, one luminance) from the Ploceidae family.
Zambia
Choma