Effects of Experimental Variation in Temperature on Larval Densities of Parasitic<i>Protocalliphora</i>(Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Nests of Tree Swallows (Passeriformes: Hirundinidae)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Larval Protocalliphora Hough are obligate hematophagous parasites of nestling birds. While there is much interest in their effects on birds, little is known about the factors influencing their population sizes within nests. We experimentally increased temperature at nests of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor Vieillot) on two study areas and compared densities of larval Protocalliphora with control nests. We found that number of Protocalliphora varied in a curvilinear fashion with temperature, with population sizes highest in nests around 25°C and decreasing at both higher and lower temperatures. After controlling for temperature, we found differences between study areas in number of Protocalliphora in nests, and we hypothesize that these results are caused by differences in the size and dispersion of nests between the two areas. There was no seasonal variation in number of Protocalliphora in nests, but numbers increased significantly with the number of hosts in a nest, presumably because more resources were available for exploitation as host brood size increased. The cell-mediated immune responses of nestling tree swallows was positively correlated with number of Protocalliphora, and we suggest that these results are the consequence of the immune systems of nestlings in heavily parasitized nests being more sensitive to challenges by novel antigens or mitogens. To our knowledge, our study is the first to show variation in densities of larval Protocalliphora as a consequence of experimental manipulation of temperature and provides insight into important factors affecting population sizes of parasites in avian nests.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".