Lajos Rózsa
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View article: Identification crisis: a fauna-wide estimate of biodiversity expertise shows massive decline in a Central European country
Identification crisis: a fauna-wide estimate of biodiversity expertise shows massive decline in a Central European country Open
Expertise in biodiversity research (taxonomy, faunistics, conservation with taxonomic background) appears to decline worldwide. While the “taxonomic impediment” is discussed extensively in the literature, much fewer papers focus on the ide…
View article: Changes of nestling ringing dates in nine bird species over seven decades
Changes of nestling ringing dates in nine bird species over seven decades Open
Climate change co-occurs with an advancement of avian breeding season (indexed as laying dates or fledging dates) in the temperate zone, suggesting a causality between them. Here, we investigate whether the long-term shifts in nestling (ch…
View article: Syringophilid Quill Mites Obey Harrison’s Rule
Syringophilid Quill Mites Obey Harrison’s Rule Open
Harrison’s Rule (HR) postulates a positive allometry between host and parasite body sizes. We tested HR for Syringophilid quill mites parasitizing birds. Using host body mass and parasite body length as size indices, this pattern was absen…
View article: Changes of nestling ringing dates in nine bird species over seven decades
Changes of nestling ringing dates in nine bird species over seven decades Open
Climate change co-occurs with an advancement of avian breeding season (indexed as laying dates or fledging dates) in the temperate zone, suggesting a causality between them. Here, we investigate whether the long-term shifts in nestling (ch…
View article: Chapter 07: Biostatistics for Parasitologists: A Painless Introduction [Concepts in Animal Parasitology]
Chapter 07: Biostatistics for Parasitologists: A Painless Introduction [Concepts in Animal Parasitology] Open
The aim of the present chapter is to advise readers how to choose appropriate statistical indices, and then, to choose the appropriate statistical tests to handle them. Finally, we offer a free statistical toolset to carry out the recommen…
View article: Multivariate study of lice (Insecta: Psocodea: Phthiraptera) assemblages hosted by hummingbirds (Aves: Trochilidae)
Multivariate study of lice (Insecta: Psocodea: Phthiraptera) assemblages hosted by hummingbirds (Aves: Trochilidae) Open
Lice were collected from 579 hummingbirds, representing 49 species, in 19 locations in Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru, at elevations 0–3000 m above sea level. The following variables were included in an ecological analysis…
View article: Coevolutionary stability of host-symbiont systems with mixed-mode transmission
Coevolutionary stability of host-symbiont systems with mixed-mode transmission Open
The coevolution of hosts and symbionts based on virulence and mode of transmission is a complex and diverse biological phenomenon. We introduced a conceptual model to study the stable coexistence and coevolution of an obligate symbiont (mu…
View article: Definitions of parasitism, considering its potentially opposing effects at different levels of hierarchical organization
Definitions of parasitism, considering its potentially opposing effects at different levels of hierarchical organization Open
An annotated synthesis of textbook definitions of parasitism is presented. Most definitions declare parasitism is a long-lasting relationship between individuals of different species harming the hosts. The infection-induced costs are inter…
View article: Genome-wide analysis of the human head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) reveals geographically structured genetic populations
Genome-wide analysis of the human head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) reveals geographically structured genetic populations Open
The human head louse ( Pediculus humanus capitis ) is an obligate ectoparasite of humans and has the potential to uncover aspects of human history that cannot be directly inferred from genetic data derived from humans. Previous studies hav…
View article: Coevolutionary Stability of Host-Symbiont Systems with Mixed-mode Transmission
Coevolutionary Stability of Host-Symbiont Systems with Mixed-mode Transmission Open
The coevolution of hosts and symbionts based on virulence and mode of transmission is a complex and diverse biological phenomenon. We introduce a conceptual model to study the stable coexistence of an obligate symbiont (mutualist or parasi…
View article: Museum-Based Research on the Lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) Infestations of Hummingbirds (Aves: Trochilidae)—Prevalence, Genus Richness and Parasite Associations
Museum-Based Research on the Lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) Infestations of Hummingbirds (Aves: Trochilidae)—Prevalence, Genus Richness and Parasite Associations Open
We documented the presence/absence of the eggs of Trochiloecetes, Trochiliphagus, and Leremenopon lice on over 50,000 hummingbird specimens (representing 348 species plus 247 additional subspecies) in four museums in the USA. (i) We provid…
View article: Relationship between body size and sexual size dimorphism in syringophilid quill mites
Relationship between body size and sexual size dimorphism in syringophilid quill mites Open
A positive relationship of body size and sexual size dimorphism (males’ size relative to females), called Rensch’s rule, is often observed in comparisons within non-parasitic taxa. However, this allometric relationship has rarely been test…
View article: Sex interacts with age-dependent change in the abundance of lice-infesting Amur Falcons (Falco amurensis)
Sex interacts with age-dependent change in the abundance of lice-infesting Amur Falcons (Falco amurensis) Open
Sex-biassed and age-biassed parasite infections are common in nature, including ectoparasites-vertebrate host systems. We investigated the effect of Amur Falcons’ sex, age and body size on the abundance of their lice at a migratory stopove…
View article: Strong negative covariation between toxoplasmosis and CoVID-19 at a global scale: a spurious indirect effect?
Strong negative covariation between toxoplasmosis and CoVID-19 at a global scale: a spurious indirect effect? Open
Coronaviruses may exert severely negative effects on the mortality and morbidity of birds and mammals including humans and domestic animals. Most recently CoVID-19 has infected over 2,360,000 humans and killed more than 165,000. Susceptibi…
View article: Rensch’s rule in avian lice: contradictory allometric trends for sexual size dimorphism
Rensch’s rule in avian lice: contradictory allometric trends for sexual size dimorphism Open
Rensch’s rule (RR) postulates that in comparisons across closely related species, male body size relative to female size increases with the average size of the species. This holds true in several vertebrate and also in certain free-living …
View article: Railway-facilitated dispersal of the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) during its current range expansion in the Pannonian Basin
Railway-facilitated dispersal of the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) during its current range expansion in the Pannonian Basin Open
Sparrows (Passer spp.) have long been presumed to rely on railway traffic during their long-distance terrestrial dispersion.The currently ongoing range expansions of the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) and the Red-rumped Swallow (H…
View article: Do small samples underestimate mean abundance? It depends on what type of bias we consider
Do small samples underestimate mean abundance? It depends on what type of bias we consider Open
Former authors claimed that, due to parasites' aggregated distribution, small samples underestimate the true population mean abundance. Here we show that this claim is false or true, depending on what is meant by 'underestimate' or, mathem…
View article: Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity
Comparison of measures of crowding, group size, and diversity Open
In ecology, diversity is often measured as the mean rarity of species in a community. In behavioral sciences and parasitology, mean crowding is the size of the group to which a typical individual belongs. In this paper, focusing mostly on …
View article: Detailed description of the Ócsa Bird Ringing Station, Hungary
Detailed description of the Ócsa Bird Ringing Station, Hungary Open
The present paper acts as an introduction to a series that will describe the exploratory analyses of migration phenology and morphometrics of the most common passerine species at the Ócsa Bird Ringing Station. This station is situated in t…
View article: Co-infections in Visceral Pentastomiasis, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Co-infections in Visceral Pentastomiasis, Democratic Republic of the Congo Open
Snakeborne Armillifer pentastomiasis is an emerging human parasitic infection in rural tropical areas where snake meat is eaten. After a series of severe ocular A. grandis larval infections and anecdotal abdominal infection in Sankuru Dist…
View article: Avian Haemosporidian blood parasite infections at a migration hotspot in Eilat, Israel
Avian Haemosporidian blood parasite infections at a migration hotspot in Eilat, Israel Open
Haemosporidian blood parasites are frequent amongst passerines. Though they often do not cause detectable consequences to host health, however, their presence or absence and also their prevalence across host populations may potentially car…