Ejecting chick cheats a changing paradigm.docVIP

GrimFrontiersinZoology2011,8:14 /content/8/1/14 COMMENTARY OpenAccess Ejectingchickcheats:achangingparadigm? Tomá?Grim Abstract Evolutionaryarms-racesbetweenavianbroodparasitesandtheirhostshavetypicallyresultedinsomespectacular adaptations,namelyremarkablehostabilitytorecognizeandrejectalieneggsand,inturn,sophisticatedparasite eggmimicry.Inastrikingcontrasttohostssometimesrejectingevenhighlymimeticeggs,thesamespecies typicallyfailtodiscriminateagainsthighlydissimilarparasitechicks.Understandingofthisenigmaisstillhampered bytherarityofempiricaltests-andconsequentlyevidence-forchickdiscrimination.RecentworkonAustralian host-parasitesystems(Gerygonehostsvs.Chalcitesparasites),increasednotonlythediversityofhostsshowing chickdiscrimination,butalsodiscoveredanentirelynovelhostbehaviouraladaptation.Thehostsdonotdesert parasitechicks(asinallpreviouslyreportedempiricalwork)butphysicallyremovelivingparasitesfromtheirnests. Here,Ibrieflydiscusstheseexcitingfindingsandputtheminthecontextofrecentempiricalandtheoreticalwork onparasitechickdiscrimination.Finally,Ireviewfactorsresponsibleforarelativelyslowprogressinthisresearch areaandsuggestmostpromisingavenuesforfutureresearch. Introduction Anovelhostanti-parasiteadaptation Scienceadvancesbyatriadofmajortypesofcontribu- Interactionsbetweenbroodparasitesandtheirhostsare tions:mostfrequentlybycollectingdatatotesthypoth- oneofthemostintenselystudiednaturalmodelsofcoe- eses that were already formulated or tested by others volution,recognitionandlearning[9-11].Untilrecently, (mostpapersinanyscientificjournal),lessoftenbysug- the majority view of host defences to mitigate costs of gesting novel hypotheses (e.g. [1]) and most rarely by parasitism was that most host species reject at least discovering completely new and unexpected natural some proportion of alien eggs but that hosts typically phenomena(e.g.[2]).RecentworkbySatoetal.[3]and accept alien chicks (reviewed in [12-14]). Virtually any Tokue and U