Phylogenetic signals in host-parasite associations for Neotropical bats and Nearctic desert rodents

Hosts and their parasites have strong ecological and evolutionary relationships, with hosts representing habitats and resources for parasites. In the present study, we use approaches developed to evaluate the statistical dependence of species trait values on phylogenetic relationships to determine whether host–parasite relationships (i.e. parasite infections) are contingent on host phylogeny. If host–parasite relationships are contingent on the ability of hosts to provide habitat or resources to parasites, and if host phylogeny is an effective surrogate for among-host variation in habitat and resource quality, host–parasite relationships should evince phylogenetic signals (i.e. be contingent on host phylogeny). Because the strength of ecological relationships between parasites and their hosts may affect the likelihood of phylogenetic signals occurring in host–parasite relationships, we hypothesized that (1) host specificity would be positively correlated with the strength of phylogeneti...,
Host-parasite phylo signals data
This data is the prevalence data for ectoparasite species and genera (only genera represented by multiple species) recorded from bats of Paraguay and for ectoparasite, helminth, and coccidian species and genera (only genera represented by multiple species) recorded from rodents from the Sevilleta LTER site in the Southwestern United States. This is the parasite data on which analyses of phylogenetic signals were based for the associated paper. This and other associated data are available from the Sevilleta LTER website as well as from the dissertation of SJ Presley (which can be downloaded for free from the electronic archives of the library of Texas Tech University).
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