Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T16:12:15.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The impact of sexual selection on Corynosoma magdaleni (Acanthocephala) infrapopulations in Saimaa ringed seals (Phoca hispida saimensis)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2004

T. SINISALO ,
R. POULIN ,
H. HÖGMANDER ,
T. JUUTI  and
E. T. VALTONEN
T. SINISALO
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
R. POULIN
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
H. HÖGMANDER
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
T. JUUTI
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
E. T. VALTONEN
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In free-living animals sexual selection is a central force shaping the spatial distribution of individuals in a population as well as sexual size dimorphism. We studied the influence of sexual selection on spatial distribution, female-to-male body size ratio, and female mating success of acanthocephalans in a natural host population of Saimaa ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis) harbouring a single intestinal helminth species, Corynosoma magdaleni. The acanthocephalans were always found along the full length of the small intestine; however, the site selection varied among the individual seals according to the age of the infection. The distribution of male acanthocephalans was not random with respect to females, with larger males tending to aggregate around non-mated females. A higher proportion of C. magdaleni females had copulated in seals with relatively more male worms. Male–male competition for access to females can be intense in C. magdaleni infrapopulation and may select for large males. We found that the larger the infrapopulation size, the smaller the males compared to females. In addition, the greater the female bias in the infrapopulation, the smaller the testes of males. Our study shows that sexual selection may be an important determinant of spatial distribution, male body size and female mating success of C. magdaleni in Saimaa ringed seal.

Keywords

sexual selectionspatial distributionbody sizefemale mating successringed sealCorynosoma magdaleni
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 128 , Issue 2 , February 2004 , pp. 179 - 185
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

ANDERSSON, M. (1994). Sexual Selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
CROMPTON, D. W. T. (1973). The sites occupied by some parasitic helminths in the alimentary tract of vertebrates. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophocal Society 48, 27–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CROMPTON, D. W. T. (1974). Experiment on insemination in Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). Parasitology 68, 229–238.Google Scholar
CROMPTON, D. W. T. (1985). Reproduction. In Biology of the Acanthocephala (ed. Crompton, D. W. T. & Nickol, B. B.), pp. 213–272. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
DAILEY, M. D. (1975). The distribution and intraspecific variation of helminth parasites in Pinnipeds. Rapport et Proces-verbaux des Réunions de la Commission internationale pour L'Exploration Scientifique de la Mer Mediterranée 169, 338–352.Google Scholar
HELLE, E. & VALTONEN, E. T. (1980). On the occurrence of Corynosoma spp. (Acanthocephala) in ringed seals (Pusa hispida) in the Bothnian Bay, Finland. Canadian Journal of Zoology 58, 298–303.Google Scholar
HELLE, E. & VALTONEN, E. T. (1981). Comparison between spring and autumn infection by Corynosoma (Acanthocephala) in the ringed seal Pusa hispida in the Bothnian Bay of the Baltic Sea. Parasitology 82, 287–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOLMES, J. C. (1961). Effects of concurrent infections on Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). I. General effects and comparison with crowding. Journal of Parasitology 47, 209–216.Google Scholar
HOLMES, J. C. (1973). Site selection by parasitic helminths: interspecific interactions, site segregation, and their importance to the development of helminth communities. Canadian Journal of Zoology 51, 333–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HYVÄRINEN, H. & NIEMINEN, M. (1990). Differentiation of the ringed seal in the Baltic Sea, Lake Ladoga and Lake Saimaa. Finnish Game Research 47, 21–27.Google Scholar
HYVÄRINEN, H., SIPILÄ, T., KOSKELA, J. & KUNNASRANTA, M. (1999). The Saimaa ringed seal. In Saimaa a Living Lake (ed. Kuusisto, E. ), pp. 126–136. Tammi, Helsinki.
KENNEDY, C. R. (1990). Helminth communities in freshwater fish: structured communities or stochastic assemblages? In Parasite Communities: Patterns and Processes (ed. Esch, G., Bush, A. & Aho, J.), pp. 131–156. Chapman and Hall, London.
KUNNASRANTA, M. (2001). Behavioural biology of two ringed seal (Phoca hispida) subspecies in the Large European lakes Saimaa and Ladoga. Ph.D. thesis, University of Joensuu, Ph.D. Dissertations in Biology, No. 7, p. 33.
LAWLOR, B. J., READ, A. F., KEYMER, A. E., PARVEEN, G. & CROMPTON, D. W. T. (1990). Non-random mating in a parasitic worm: mate choice by males? Animal Behaviour 40, 870–876.Google Scholar
NICKOL, B. B., VALTONEN, E. T. & HELLE, E. (2002). Corynosoma magdaleni in grey seals from SW Finland Baltic Sea, with ememded description of C. magdaleni and C. strumosum. Journal of Parasitology 88, 1222–1229.Google Scholar
PARSHAD, V. R. & CROMPTON, D. W. T. (1981). Aspects of acanthocephalan reproduction. Advances in Parasitology 19, 73–138.Google Scholar
PATRICK, M. J. (1991). Distribution of enteric helminths in Glaucomys volans L. (Sciuridae): a test for competition. Ecology 72, 755–758.Google Scholar
POULIN, R. (1997). Population abundance and sex ratio in dioecious helminth parasites. Oecologia 111, 375–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POULIN, R. (1998). Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites. Chapman and Hall, London.
RICHARDSON, D. J., MARTENS, J. K. & NICKOL, B. B. (1997). Copulation and sexual congress of Leptorhynchoides thecatus (Acanthocephala). Journal of Parasitology 83, 542–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SASAL, P., JOBET, E., FALIEX, E. & MORAND, S. (2000). Sexual competition in an acanthocephalan parasite of fish. Parasitology 120, 65–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SINISALO, T., KUNNASRANTA, M. & VALTONEN, E. T. (2003). Intestinal helminths of a landlocked ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis) population in the Eastern Finland. Parasitology Research 91, 40–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STARLING, J. A. (1985). Feeding, nutrition and metabolism. In Biology of the Acanthocephala (ed. Crompton, D. W. T. & Nickol, B. B. ), pp. 125–212. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
VALTONEN, E. T. (1983). On the ecology of Echinorhynchus salmonis and two Corynosoma species (Acanthocephala) in the fish and seals. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis Series A, No. 156, Biologica No. 22, p. 48.
VALTONEN, E. T. & HELLE, E. (1982). Experimental infection of laboratory rats with Corynosoma semerme (Acanthocephala). Parasitology 85, 9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VALTONEN, E. T. & HELLE, E. (1988). Host–parasite relationship between two seal populations and two species of Corynosoma (Acanthocephla) in Finland. Journal of Zoology 214, 361–371.Google Scholar
WHITFIELD, P. J. (1973). The egg envelopes of Polymorphus minutus (Acanthocephala). Parasitology 66, 387–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar