DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3s7r7
title: Data from: When parasites disagree: evidence for parasite-induced sabotage of host manipulation

description: Host manipulation is a common parasite strategy to alter host behavior in
 a manner to enhance parasite fitness usually by increasing the
 parasite's transmission to the next host. In nature, hosts often
 harbour multiple parasites with agreeing or conflicting interests over
 host manipulation. Natural selection might drive such parasites to
 cooperation, compromise or sabotage. Sabotage would occur, if one parasite
 suppresses the manipulation of another. Experimental studies on the effect
 of multi-parasite interactions on host manipulation are scarce, clear
 experimental evidence for sabotage is elusive. We tested the effect of
 multiple infections on host manipulation using lab bred copepods
 experimentally infected with the trophically transmitted tapeworm
 Schistocephalus solidus. This parasite is known to manipulate its host
 depending on its own developmental stage. Coinfecting parasites with the
 same aim enhanced each other's manipulation but only after reaching
 infectivity. If the coinfecting parasites disagree over host manipulation,
 the infective parasite wins this conflict: the non-infective one has no
 effect. The winning (i.e. infective) parasite suppresses the manipulation
 of its non-infective competitor. This presents conclusive experimental
 evidence for both cooperation in and sabotage of host manipulation and
 hence a proof of principal that one parasite can alter and even neutralize
 manipulation by another.
description: data_experiment1:
 intraspecific conflict and cooperationWorksheet 1
 ("copepods") contains information on each copepod used in the
 study including dead or incorrectly infected copepods. Worksheet 2
 ("behavior") contains the behavior of only those copepods that
 survived until their infection status could be determined and that were
 infected by all parasites they had been exposed to. No behavior was
 recorded for any of the other copepods. The behavior consists of the
 position of each copepod every two seconds during one minute after a
 simulated predation attack and after a recovery period and, resulting from
 this whether or how far they moved during this time interval. This data
 was obtained from video recordings of copepod behavior using the manual
 tracking tool in imageJ and was done blindly as to the infection status of
 each copepod.data_experiment1.xlsdata_experiment2_effect_of_parasite_number_on_intraspecific_conflictWorksheet 1 ("copepods") contains information on each copepod used in the study including dead or incorrectly infected copepods. Worksheet 2 ("behavior") contains the behavior of only those copepods that survived until their infection status could be determined and that were infected by all parasites they had been exposed to. No behavior was recorded for any of the other copepods. The behavior consists of the position of each copepod every two seconds during one minute after a simulated predation attack and after a recovery period and, resulting from this whether or how far they moved during this time interval. This data was obtained from video recordings of copepod behavior using the manual tracking tool in imageJ and was done blindly as to the infection status of each copepod.data_experiment2.xlsdata_preliminary_experiment: Parasite size and effect of parasite number on an intraspecific conflictData for supplementary results 2. Worksheet 1 ("copepods") contains information on each copepod used in the study including dead or incorrectly infected copepods. Worksheet 2 ("behavior") contains the behavior of only those copepods that survived until their infection status could be determined and that were infected by all parasites they had been exposed to. No behavior was recorded for any of the other copepods. The behavior consists of the position of each copepod every two seconds during one minute after a simulated predation attack and after a recovery period and, resulting from this whether or how far they moved during this time interval. This data was obtained from video recordings of copepod behavior using the manual tracking tool in imageJ and was done blindly as to the infection status of each copepod.data_preliminary_experiment.xlsx