Dear enemy effect in the Mexican volcano mouse Neotomodon alstoni: Implications of sex in the agonistic behaviour among neighbours.

Two opposite phenomena have been found in territorial animals, the "dear enemy'' and the "nasty neighbour'', which refer to individuals that show less aggression toward neighbours than toward strangers and vice versa. However, the need to maintain territory should differ for males and females because sexual reproduction is the result of the different adaptive strategies of the sexes. In this study, we explore territorial behaviour in the context of dear-enemy and nasty neighbour effects in the Mexican volcano mouse (Neotomodon alstoni). Patterns of spatial relationships between individuals and the degrees of agonistic behaviour among neighbours were analysed for a period of one year. Results exhibit a greater spatial proximity between male pairs during the non-reproductive period than during the reproductive period, and greater spatial proximity between pairs of females during the reproductive period than during the non-reproductive period. The analysis of agonistic behaviour showed that there is less tolerance for distant neighbours than for nearest neighbours. However, there is a greater frequency of aggression between male pairs than between females, while females appear to exhibit non-aggressive avoidance among individuals. The results support the theory that Mexican volcano mouse exhibits the "dear enemy phenomenon".

Host species influence on flea (Siphonaptera) infection parameters of terrestrial micromammals in a temperate forest of Mexico.

Studies of abundance and distribution of organisms are fundamental to ecology. The identity of host species is known to be one of the major factors influencing ectoparasitic flea abundance, but explanations are still needed regarding how host taxa influence abundance parameters of different flea species. This study was carried out at La Malinche National Park (LMNP), Tlaxcala, Mexico, where previously 11 flea species had been recorded on 8 host species. Our aims were to list micromammal flea species, to determine flea infection parameters [flea prevalence (FP) and flea mean abundance (FMA)] and to analyse the influence of host species on these parameters. A total of 16 species of fleas were identified from 1178 fleas collected from 14 species of 1274 micromammals captured with Sherman® traps from March 2014 to December 2015 in 18 sites at LMNP. Some host species influence FP and FMA, in particular, Microtus mexicanus and Peromyscus melanotis showed particularly higher infection values than other host species. Plusaetis aztecus and Plusaetis sibynus were identified as the most abundant flea species.