Parasite specificity in Podarcis bocagei and P. carbonelli (Lacertidae) from NW Portugal: a host-parasite history

Abstract

The concept of co-evolution between parasites and hosts is based on the fact that the gradual host-parasite adaptation has been adjusting over evolutionary time in mutual gene interaction to get a balanced relationship (Combes, 1995; Martínez-Fernández Cordero del Campillo, 2007). Host specificity is defined as the extent to which a parasite taxon is restricted in the number of host species used at a given stage in the life cycle (Poulin, 1998). Highly host-specific parasites are restricted to one host species (extreme stenoxeny) and specificity declines as the number of suitable host species increases (eurixeny) (Poulin, 1998). To understand why some

Intestinal parasites of unisexual and bisexual lizards Darevskia spp. (Lacertidae) from Northeastern Anatolia

“…Also all the searched hosts show poorer helminth communities and lower prevalence of infection than other continental Palaearctic rock lizards of the genus Podarcis. As suggested by Roca (2015), probably it might be better explained by the ecological characteristics of hosts and environment than in terms of the phylogeny of the lizard hosts.…”

Parasites in Spanish populations of <em>Psammodromus algirus</em> (Algerian sand lizard, lagartija colilarga) and <em>Psammodromus occidentalis</em> (Western sand lizard, lagarto de arena occidental) (Squamata, Lacertidae, Gallotiinae)

“…Rojo-Vázquez (2007), Roca (2015) infers that ecological factors may favor encounters between insect hosts and the lizards that feed upon them, thereby facilitating completion of the parasite life cycle. As neither low host specificity (eurixeny), nor high host specificity (estenoxeny) require ʺlong contact time in the [co-evolution] of parasite and hostʺ, if placed on a continuum S. ho ff manni falls close to the low end, and far from the high end.…”