COEVOLUTION OF AN AVIAN HOST AND ITS PARASITIC CUCKOO

We use a quantitative genetic model to examine the coevolution of host and cuckoo egg characters (termed “size” as a proxy for general appearance), host discrimination, and host and cuckoo population dynamics. A host decides whether to discard an egg using a comparison of the sizes of the eggs in he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2003-05, Vol.57 (5), p.1164-1175
Main Authors: Servedio, Maria R, Lande, Russell
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal nesting
Animal populations
Animal reproduction
Animals
Avian brood parasitism
Biological Evolution
Bird nesting
Birds
Birds - physiology
Brood parasitism
Coevolution
cuckoo
discrimination
Eggs
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
evolutionary lag
Female
Female animals
Genetic diversity
Mimicry
Models, Genetic
Nesting Behavior - physiology
Ovum - physiology
Population Dynamics
Population size
quantitative genetic model
Quantitative genetics
REGULAR ARTICLES
Symbiosis
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Summary:We use a quantitative genetic model to examine the coevolution of host and cuckoo egg characters (termed “size” as a proxy for general appearance), host discrimination, and host and cuckoo population dynamics. A host decides whether to discard an egg using a comparison of the sizes of the eggs in her nest, which changes as host and cuckoo eggs evolve. Specifically, we assume that the probability that she discards the largest egg in her nest depends on how much larger it is than the second largest egg. This decision rule (i.e., the acceptable difference in egg sizes) also evolves, changing both the chance of successful rejection of a cuckoo egg in parasitized nests and the chance of mistaken rejection of a host egg in both parasitized and unparasitized nests. We find a stable equilibrium for coexistence of the host and cuckoo where there is cuckoo egg mimicry, evolutionary displacement of the host egg away from the cuckoo egg phenotype, and host discrimination against unusual eggs. Both host discrimination and host egg displacement are fairly weak at the equilibrium. Cuckoo egg mimicry, although imperfect, usually evolves more extensively and quickly than the responses of the host. Our model provides evidence for both the evolutionary equilibrium and evolutionary lag hypotheses of host acceptance of parasitic eggs.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1554/0014-3820(2003)057[1164:COAAHA]2.0.CO;2