Infection success data from experimental pairings of cane toad hosts and lungworm parasites

By imposing novel selection pressures on both participants, biological invasions can disrupt evolutionary “arms races” between hosts and parasites. A spatially replicated cross-infection experiment reveals strong divergence in the ability of lungworms (Rhabdias pseudosphaerocephala) to infect invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) in Australia. In areas colonised for > 20 years, toads are more resistant to infection by local strains of parasites than by allopatric strains. The situation reverses at the invasion front, where super-infective parasites have evolved. Invasion-induced shifts in genetic diversity and selective pressures may explain why hosts win the arms race in long-colonised areas whereas parasites win the arms race at the invasion front., , , # Cane Toad vs Rhabdias infection success data for Dryad

This was an experimental cross-infection study where common-garden reared cane toads from across their invaded range in Australia were infected with *Rhabdias* lungworm parasites from across the range. The dataset contains information on the origins of host and parasite, their sizes and the infection success of the experimental pairings.

**Description of the data and file structure**

The data set is an excel file with columns for these variables-

Variable name          Variable description

ID                              Individual identification code for each toad

 

Litter                         The captive-bred family each toad originated from

 

toad site                    The location that the parental toads that produced each litter were originally captured from

 

Toad state                 The Australian state that each parental capture site was located in

 

worm site                  The location that the to...