Are cryptic host species also cryptic to parasites? Host specificity and geographical distribution of acanthocephalan parasites infecting freshwater Gammarus

Many parasites infect multiple host species. In coevolving host–parasite interactions, theory predicts that parasites should be adapted to locally common hosts, which could lead to regional shifts in host preferences. We studied the interaction between freshwater Gammarus (Crustacea, Amphipoda) and their acanthocephalan parasites using a large-scale field survey and experiments, combined with molecular identification of cryptic host and parasite species. Gammarus pulex is a common host for multiple species of Acanthocephala in Europe but, in Switzerland, is less common than two cryptic members of the Gammarus fossarum species complex (type A and type B). We found that natural populations of these cryptic species were frequently infected by Pomphorhynchus tereticollis and Polymorphus minutus. Four additional parasite species occurred only locally. Parasites were more common in G. fossarum type B than in type A. Infection experiments using several host and parasite sources confirmed consistently lower infection rates in G. pulex than in G. fossarum type A, suggesting a general difference in susceptibility between the two species. In conclusion, we could show that cryptic host species differ in their interactions with parasites, but that these differences were much less dramatic than differences between G. fossarum (type A) and G. pulex. Our data suggest that the acanthocephalans in Switzerland have adapted to the two most common Gammarus species in this region where host species frequencies differ from near-by regions in Europe.

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Mode of access: Internet.

The geographical distribution of animals. With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the earth's surface.

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On the geographical distribution of some tropical diseases and their relation to physical phenomena /

"Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh."

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The migration of British birds : including their post-glacial emigrations as traced by the application of a new law of disperal being a contribution to the study of migration, geographical distribution, and insular faunas /

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A natural history of the British butterflies ; their world-wide variation and geographical distribution. A text-book for students and collectors.

Volume 4 edited by George Wheeler.

An essay on the geographical distribution of plants, through the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Durham.

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A natural system of botany, or, A systematic view of the organization, natural affinities, and geographical distribution, of the whole vegetable kingdom : together with the uses of the most important species in medicine, the arts, and rural or domestic economy /

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