小杜鹃对小鳞胸鹪鹛的巢寄生

鸟类的巢寄生现象一直被作为生物协同演化的典型模式系统之一。对杜鹃选择宿主及其巢寄生情况进行调查和观测,能够为协同演化研究提供重要基础资料。2015年7月,我们在四川省雷波县发现一个被杜鹃寄生的鸟巢。通过野外观测和分子生物学检测,确定宿主为小鳞胸鹪鹛(Pnoepyga pusilla),而寄生者为小杜鹃(Cuculus poliocephalus)。

The Brood Parasitism of Pygmy Wren Babbler (Pnoepyga pusilla) by Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus)

Brood parasitism is a model system of studying co-evolution, however, which species can be parasitized by cuckoo is not clear until now. In order to make sure whether the Pygmy Wren Babbler (Pnoepyga pusilla) can be parasitized by Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus), we used field observations and molecular analysis to examine it in Sichuan, China. During July, 2015, we found one nest of Pygmy Wren Babbler with brood parasitism (Fig 1). With polymerase chain reaction, two genetic barcodes (cyt b, COI) were successfully amplified and sequenced, 1 012 bp and 680 bp were got for each barcode. The sequences we blasted in gene bank showed the parasite was Lesser Cuckoo, the host was pygmy wren babbler, with 100% ident. With literature search, we found that 10 species, except pygmy wren babbler, have ever been recorded as host of Lesser Cuckoo (Table 1). This study confirmed the existence of the Lesser Cuckoo parasitizing Pygmy Wren Babbler nest.