Mehrere Ebenen in der Interaktion zwischen einem Parasiten und seinem sozialen Wirt: direkte und indirekte Effekte auf Gruppenmitglieder und ihre soziale Abfederung

• Antragstellerinnen / Antragsteller: Professorin Dr. Susanne Foitzik; Privatdozent Dr. Florian Menzel
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Evolution, Anthropologie ; Biologie des Verhaltens und der Sinne ; Ökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere und Ökosysteme, Organismische Interaktionen
• Förderung: Förderung von 2013 bis 2017
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 234775307

Parasites generally lower host fitness, and they can also induce distinct changes in the behavior, morphology and life history of their hosts. These changes can be means by which hosts reduce parasite impact, they can be disease symptoms or the parasites manipulation of the host organism in its own interest. When parasites infect social groups they do not only influence infected individuals, but their impact extends to entire societies. We could show multiple effects of parasitism on the individual and collective level in the ant species Temnothorax nylanderi, which is used as an intermediate host by the cestode Anomotaenia brevis. On the individual level, changes in morphology only influenced infected workers, whereas alterations in behavior and longevity also extended to healthy workers of parasitized colonies. On the colony level, fitness consequences were minor, but investment strategies shifted, for example the sex ratio became male-biased. Our proposed study has two major aims: First, we are interested in the social resilience of an insect society against parasitism. We will use field and laboratory experiments to find out to which extent the social group can buffer the negative individual-level consequences. We will investigate various colony-level traits including winter survival, productivity and several collective behaviors. Second, we will analyze in which ways the parasite affects the behavior, longevity and physiology of non-infected workers in parasitized groups and we will focus here on the chemical communication signals and social interactions within and between groups.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen