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About the Authors:
David E. Bellamy
Affiliation: San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Parlier, California, United States of America
Mark S. Sisterson
Affiliation: San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Parlier, California, United States of America
Spencer S. Walse
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Parlier, California, United States of America
Introduction
There is interest in many areas of biology to understand and define relations between a host and the organism it harbors. Host preference and host suitability, as generally termed, are both critically related to the potential of a host to serve as a resource [1]–[3]. When evaluating a suite of hosts, indices offer a mathematical framework to quantitatively integrate findings from multiple types of host suitability and host preference studies into an overall expression of host potential. Yet, very little research has been dedicated towards this end.
Host preference studies examine behaviors associated with host selection (e.g., host location, distribution, and abundance) [4]–[6] at individual and population levels [7]–[9]. While various indices have been developed for host preference studies, most are species or system specific (“Feeding Index” [10]; “Human Blood Index” [11]; “Preference Index” [12]). Some preference indices have broader applications such as those developed to enumerate the relative behavioral response of individuals during host selection [7], evaluate preference as proxied by mark-release-recapture ratios [13], or quantify preferential utilization based on host spatiotemporal considerations [14].
Host suitability studies evaluate factors affecting the physiological development/performance of the harbored organism and other features of host quality [15]–[18]. Host suitability studies using indices are also rare, but have been applied to some biological systems. For example, larval performance can be evaluated using the Egg Production Index (EPI) [19], which estimates egg production based on pupal mass. Perhaps the most comprehensive application is the “Host Suitability Index” [20] which uses pupal weight, leaf consumption, development time, and survival rate to calculate host suitability for herbivorous insects.
There are several rating systems capable of producing ranking indices that have not been applied to host preference or host suitability. For example, several vertebrate behavior studies looking at paired outcomes (e.g., male A vs. male B...