Evol Ecol Res 4: 951-961 (2002)     Full PDF if your library subscribes.

Body size–density relationships and species diversity in parasitic nematodes: patterns and likely processes

S. Morand¹* and R. Poulin²

¹Centre de Biologie et d’Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne, UMR 5555 CNRS, Université de Perpignan, 66860 Perpignan cedex, France and ²Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.
e-mail: morand@univ-perp.fr

ABSTRACT

We examined the patterns of body size distribution in parasite nematodes in relation to species diversity and abundance. We hypothesized that parasite body size is optimized and we used the net transmission rate as a fitness function. The net transmission rate was derived from classical epidemiological models. We tested the predicted patterns emerging from the optimal model using observed patterns of nematode distribution and abundance of terrestrial mammals. Our model predicts a value for the slope of the relationship between parasite body size and host body size that is found for the oxyuroids, a highly host-specific group of nematodes with direct life cycles.

Keywords: abundance, body size, energetic equivalence rule, model, nematode.

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        © 2002 Serge Morand. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.

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