ArticleInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife2016
Host body size and the diversity of tick assemblages on Neotropical vertebrates.
Article in International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Drivers of tick community structure in a rhinoceros meta-population in Kenya.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2026Article
- Host-Pathogen-Vector Continuum in a Changing Landscape: Potential Transmission Pathways forEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Host and habitat shape ectoparasite diversity onParasitology · 2024Article
- Predicting host range expansion in parasitic mites using a global mammalian-acarine dataset.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Summer collection of multiple southern species of ticks in a remote northern island in Japan and literature review of the distribution and avian hosts of ticks.Experimental & applied acarology · 2023Review
- Ectoparasites associated with the Bushveld gerbil (Parasitology · 2023Article
- A snapshot of climate drivers and temporal variation ofInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Spillover and spillback risks of ectoparasites by an invasive squirrelInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2022Article
- Similarity in ixodid tick communities harboured by wildlife and livestock in the Albany Thicket Biome of South Africa.Parasitology · 2022Article
- Ticks infesting humans in Central America: A review of their relevance in public health.Current research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2022Review
- Experimental evidence that host choice by parasites is age-dependent in a fish-monogenean system.Parasitology research · 2022Article
- Performance of HIV detection in Zhejiang province in China: The Pareto principle at work.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2021Article
- Spatial and temporal variation of compositional, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in ectoparasite infracommunities harboured by small mammals.Parasitology · 2021Article
- An annotated checklist of the eukaryotic parasites of humans, exclusive of fungi and algae.ZooKeys · 2021Article
- Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens in Domestic Animals, Wild Pigs, and Off-Host Environmental Sampling in Guam, USA.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
- Associations between Japanese spotted fever (JSF) cases and wildlife distribution on the Boso Peninsula, Central Japan (2006-2017).The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2020Article
- Low host specificity and lack of parasite avoidance by immature ticks in Brazilian birds.Parasitology research · 2020Article
- Ectoparasites of small mammals in a fragmented area of the southern Amazonia: interaction networks and correlations with seasonality and host sex.Experimental & applied acarology · 2020Article
- Preliminary investigation of ixodid ticks in Jiangxi Province of Eastern China.Experimental & applied acarology · 2019Article
- Wild pigs as sentinels for hard ticks: A case study from south-central Florida.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Identifying the factors that influence the species diversity and distribution of ticks (Acari: Ixodida) across vertebrate host taxa is of fundamental ecological and medical importance. Host body size is considered one of the most important determinants of tick abundance, with larger hosts having higher tick burdens. The species diversity of tick assemblages should also be greater on larger-bodied host species, but empirical studies testing this hypothesis are lacking. Here, we evaluate this relationship using a comparative dataset of feeding associations from Panama between 45 tick species and 171 host species that range in body size by three orders of magnitude. We found that tick species diversity increased with host body size for adult ticks but not for immature ticks. We also found that closely related host species tended to have similar tick species diversity, but correcting for host phylogeny did not alter the relationships between host body size and tick species diversity. The distribution of tick species was highly aggregated, with approximately 20% of the host species harboring 80% of all tick species, following the Pareto principle or 20/80 Rule. Thus, the aggregated pattern commonly observed for tick burdens and disease transmission also holds for patterns of tick species richness. Our finding that the adult ticks in this system preferentially parasitize large-bodied host species suggests that the ongoing anthropogenic loss of large-bodied vertebrates is likely to result in host-tick coextinction events, even when immature stages feed opportunistically. As parasites play critical roles in ecological and evolutionary processes, such losses may profoundly affect ecosystem functioning and services.
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