Behavioural and genetic evidence of a recent population switch to a novel host species in brood‐parasitic indigobirds Vidua chalybeata

Payne, Robert B.; Hustler, Kit; Stjernstedt, R.; Sefc, Kristina M.; Sorenson, Michael D.

doi:10.1046/j.1474-919x.2002.00065.x

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…How genetic factors interact with early experience in governing mate choice is poorly understood, yet such interaction may be very important in those birds and mammals whose mate choice is guided by imprinting in early life (e.g. Payne et al 2000Payne et al , 2002. In fact, there may be no genetic divergence in mate recognition and response systems in the early stages of speciation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedigrees, assortative mating and speciation in Darwin's finches

Grant

2008

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Pedigree analysis is a useful tool in the study of speciation. It can reveal trans-generational influences on the choice of mates. We examined mating patterns in a population of Darwin's medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) on Daphne Major Island to improve our understanding of how a barrier to the exchange of genes between populations arises in evolution. Body sizes of mates were weakly correlated. In one year, the smallest females were paired non-randomly with the males of similar size, and in another year the largest males were paired with the largest females. An influence of parental morphology on the choice of mates, as expected from sexual imprinting theory, was found; the body size of mates was predicted by the body sizes of both parents, and especially strongly by the father's. These associations imply that the seeds of reproductive isolation between species are present within a single variable population. The implication was subject to a natural test: two exceptionally large birds of the study species, apparently immigrants, bred with each other, as did their offspring, and not with the members of the resident population. The intense inbreeding represents incipient speciation. It parallels a similar phenomenon when another species, the large ground finch, immigrated to Daphne and established a new population without interbreeding with the resident medium ground finches.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedigrees, assortative mating and speciation in Darwin's finches

Grant

2008

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…According to this hypothesis, the young parasite learns some features of the foster parents or the nest or habitat where it was reared, and later seeks the same host, nest type or habitat to lay its eggs (Mosknes & Røskaft 1995;Teuschl et al 1998;Payne et al 2002;. This mechanism may result in host-specific matrilineal lineages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential reproductive success favours strong host preference in a highly specialized brood parasite

Mársico

Reboreda

2008

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Obligate avian brood parasites show dramatic variation in the degree to which they are host specialists or host generalists. The screaming cowbird Molothrus rufoaxillaris is one of the most specialized brood parasites, using a single host, the bay-winged cowbird (Agelaioides badius) over most of its range. Coevolutionary theory predicts increasing host specificity the longer the parasite interacts with a particular avian community, as hosts evolve defences that the parasite cannot counteract. According to this view, host specificity can be maintained if screaming cowbirds avoid parasitizing potentially suitable hosts that have developed effective defences against parasitic females or eggs. Specialization may also be favoured, even in the absence of host defences, if the parasite's reproductive success in alternative hosts is lower than that in the main host. We experimentally tested these hypotheses using as alternative hosts two suitable but unparasitized species: house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) and chalk-browed mockingbirds (Mimus saturninus). We assessed host defences against parasitic females and eggs, and reproductive success of the parasite in current and alternative hosts. Alternative hosts did not discriminate against screaming cowbird females or eggs. Egg survival and hatching success were similarly high in current and alternative hosts, but the survival of parasitic chicks was significantly lower in alternative hosts. Our results indicate that screaming cowbirds have the potential to colonize novel hosts, but higher reproductive success in the current host may favour host fidelity.

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“…Their songs are learned, culturally transmitted traits. Until a cultural equivalent to the sympatric speciation model of genetic variation and covariation is developed (see Lachlan and Slater 1999;Lachlan and Feldman 2003), the plausibility of sympatric speciation in songbirds remains doubtful except in unusual breeding systems (e.g., Payne et al 2002;Sorenson et al 2003).…”

Section: Sympatric Speciationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybridization in the Recent Past

Grant¹,

Grant²,

Petren³

2005

The American Naturalist

171

136

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The question we address in this article is how hybridization in the recent past can be detected in recently evolved species. Such species may not have evolved genetic incompatibilities and may hybridize with little or no fitness loss. Hybridization can be recognized by relatively small genetic differences between sympatric populations because sympatric populations have the opportunity to interbreed whereas allopatric populations do not. Using microsatellite DNA data from Darwin's finches in the Galapagos archipelago, we compare sympatric and allopatric genetic distances in pairs of Geospiza and Camarhynchus species. In agreement with the hybridization hypothesis, we found a statistically strong tendency for a species to be more similar genetically to a sympatric relative than to allopatric populations of that relative. Hybridization has been studied directly on two islands, but it is evidently more widespread in the archipelago. We argue that introgressive hybridization may have been a persistent feature of the adaptive radiation through most of its history, facilitating evolutionary diversification and occasionally affecting both the speed and direction of evolution.

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Behavioural and genetic evidence of a recent population switch to a novel host species in brood‐parasitic indigobirds Vidua chalybeata

Cited by 36 publications

References 33 publications

Pedigrees, assortative mating and speciation in Darwin's finches

Pedigrees, assortative mating and speciation in Darwin's finches

Differential reproductive success favours strong host preference in a highly specialized brood parasite

Hybridization in the Recent Past

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