January 2002] 213 Notes The Auk 119(1):213–216, 2002 Effects of Feather Lice on Flight Behavior of Male Barn Swallows (Hirundo Rustica) A. BARBOSA, 1,5 S. MERINO, 2 F. DE LOPE, 3 AND A. P. MØLLER 4 1 Estacio ´n Experimental de Zonas A ´ ridas, CSIC, C/General Segura, 1, E-04001 Almeria, Spain; 2 Departamento de Ecologı ´a Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, C/Jose ´ Gutie ´rrez Abascal, 2, E-28006 Madrid, Spain; 3 Departamento de Biologı ´a Animal, Facultad de Biologı ´a, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas s/n, E-06071 Badajoz, Spain; and 4 Laboratoire d’Ecologie, CNRS-URA 258, Universite ´ Pierre et Marie Curie, Bat A 7e etage, 7 quai St. Bernard, Case 237, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France ABSTRACT.—Parasites may affect host behavior in a number of ways, including their locomotory per- formance. We investigated whether the number of holes produced by the feather louse (Myrsidea rustica) affected flight behavior in adult male Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) by video-taping flight performance of individuals during escape and level flight. Per- centage of time spent flapping during foraging flight was positively related to number of holes, but not to other flight parameters such as wingbeat frequency. These results suggest indirect effects of feather lice on host performance that must be considered togeth- er with effects of thermoregulation and feather breakage. This is the first report of an effect of par- asite load on flight behavior. RESUMEN.—Los para ´sitos pueden afectar el com- portamiento de sus hospederos de diferentes mane- ras entre las que se incluye la locomocio ´n. Investi- gamos si el nu ´ mero de agujeros en el plumaje producidos por el piojo de pluma Myrsidea rustica afecta el comportamiento de vuelo de machos adul- tos de Hirundo rustica durante el escape y la alimen- tacio ´n. El nu ´mero de agujeros producidos por los piojos estuvo relacionado positivamente con el por- centaje de tiempo empleado en vuelo batido, pero no se encontro ´ ninguna relacio ´n con otros para ´metros de vuelo tales como la frecuencia de batido de las alas. Estos resultados sugieren la existencia de efec- tos indirectos de los piojos de pluma sobre sus hos- pederos que deben considerarse junto con sus efec- 5 E-mail: barbosa@eeza.csic.es tos sobre la termorregulacio ´ n y el plumaje. Esta es la primera vez que se encuentra un efecto de un para ´- sito sobre el comportamiento de vuelo. Parasites have numerous effects on behavior, life history, and ecology of their hosts (e.g. Price 1980, Clayton and Moore 1997). Many studies have shown that parasites can change host behavior and thereby influence host fitness (Price 1980, Dobson 1988, Poi- nar 1991). However, most studies of host–parasite in- teractions have focused on life-history components such as reproductive success, quality of offspring or survival (see review in Møller 1997), sexual selection (Hamilton and Zuk 1982, Read 1988, Clayton 1991), dispersal (Brown and Brown 1992), and habitat se- lection (Emlen 1986, Chapman and George 1991). All those effects of parasites on host fitness are mediated by behavioral mechanisms that cause differences in performance. However, only very few studies have investigated the direct effect of parasites on loco- motor performance of hosts, and those studies have exclusively been done on reptiles (Daniels 1985, Op- pliger et al. 1996). This lack of information is all the more surprising given the importance of locomotion in efficient foraging and successful escape from predators (Webb 1986, Barbosa and Moreno 1999). As far as we know, effects of parasites on flight per- formance in birds have never been studied, although flight performance is one of the main ecological fac- tors affecting bird life (Norberg 1990). The feather louse (Myrsidea rustica) is abundant on adult and nestling Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica; Møller 1994). This feather louse produces small holes Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/119/1/213/5562049 by guest on 11 May 2021