BioConcepts

brood parasitismBrutparasitismus (ger.)

• The mode of life characteristic of brood parasites, i.e. of animals that lay their eggs in the nest of another animal (of the same or a different species), leaving the host to care for them and the eventual young, to the detriment of the host’s young. (OED 2005)  
  category parasitism

  c. -350 (BC)

  [Νεοττοὺς δὲ κόκκυγος λέγουσιν ὡς οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν· ὁ δὲ τίκτει μέν, ἀλλ’ οὐ ποιησάμενος νεοττιάν, ἀλλ’ ἐνίοτε μὲν ἐν τῇ τῶν ἐλαττόνων ὀρνίθων ἐντίκτει καταφαγὼν τὰ ᾠὰ τὰ ἐκείνων, μάλιστα δ’ ἐν ταῖς τῶν φαβῶν νεοττιαῖς, καταφα γὼν καὶ τὰ τούτων ᾠά. Τίκτει δ’ ὀλιγάκις μὲν δύο, τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα ἕν. Ἐντίκτει δὲ καὶ τῇ τῆς ὑπολαΐδος νεοττιᾷ· ἡ δ’ἐκπέττει καὶ ἐκτρέφει. Γίνεται δὲ πίων καὶ ἡδύκρεως κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν καιρὸν μάλιστα. [They say that no one has ever seen cuckoo-chicks. The bird lays eggs, but without previously building a nest. Sometimes it lays its eggs in the nest of smaller birds, after devouring these birds’ eggs: it lays first and foremost in the nests of the wild pigeon, having first devoured this bird’s eggs. It seldom lays two, most frequently one. It also lays in the nest of the hypolaïs [perhaps one of the warblers], which brings the egg’s concoction to completion and rears the chick. At this season particularly the bird becomes fat and tasty for the table.]

  Aristotle (c. 350 BC). Historia animalium 563b29-564a4 [transl. by A.L. Peck 1970].]

  77 AD

  [Coccyx […] inter quae parit in alienis nidis, maxime palumbium, maiore ex parte singula ova, quod nulla alia avis, raro bina. causa pullos subiciendi putatur quod sciat se invisam cunctis avibus; nam minutae quoque infestant. ita non fore tutam generi suo stirpem opinatur, ni fefellerit; quare nullum facit nidum, alioqui trepidum animal. educat ergo subditum adulterato feta nido. [der Kuckuck [...] legt seine Eyer allezeit in fremde Nester, am meisten bey der Ringeltaube: mehrentheils nur ein Ey; welches sonst kein Vogel thut; selten zwey. Man hält dieß für die Ursache, andern die Eyer unterzuschieben, weil er wisse, daß er allen Vögeln verhaßt ist. Dann auch die kleine verfolgen schon die andre Vögel: daher glaubt er, er werde sein Geschlecht nicht sicher fortpflanzen können, wo er sie nicht betriege: daher macht dieses sonst furchtsame Thier kein Nest. Hat sie also gelegt, so erziehet sie ihr Junges gleichsam in einem durch Ehebruch geschändeten Neste.]

  Pliny (77 AD). Naturalis historia 10, 25-27 [transl. by J.D. Denso 1764].]

  c. 200

  [Ἦν δὲ ἄρα οἰκεῖα τῷ πεπαιδευμένῳ καὶ ταῦτα εἰδέναι. σοφώτατος ὁ κόκκυξ καὶ πλέκειν εὐπόρους ἐξ ἀπόρων μηχανὰς δεινότατος. ἑαυτῷ μὲν γὰρ συνεπίσταται ἐπῳάζειν οὐ δυναμένῳ καὶ ἐκλέπειν διὰ ψυχρότητα τῆς ἐν τῷ σώματι συγκράσεως, ὥς φασιν. οὐκοῦν ὅταν τίκτῃ, οὔτε αὐτὸς νεοττιὰν ὑποπλέκει οὔτε τιθηνεῖται τὰ βρέφη, φυλάττει δὲ ἄρα τοὺς τῶν νεοττιῶν δεσπότας ἀφεστῶτας καὶ πλανωμένους, καὶ παρελθὼν ἐς καταγωγὴν ὀθνείαν ἐντίκτει. οὐ πάντων δὲ ὀρνίθων καλιαῖς ἐπιπηδᾷ οὗτός γε, ἀλλὰ κορύδου καὶ φάττης καὶ χλωρίδος καὶ πάππου· τούτοις γὰρ συνεπίσταται ὅμοια αὐτῷ ᾠὰ τίκτουσι. καὶ κενῶν μὲν αὐτῶν οὐσῶν, οὐκ ἂν παρέλθοι· ᾠῶν δὲ ἔνδον ὄντων εἶτα μέντοι τὰ ἑαυτοῦ παρενέμιξεν. ἐὰν δὲ ᾖ πολλὰ τὰ ἐκείνων, τὰ μὲν ἐκκυλίσας ἠφάἐὰν δὲ ᾖ πολλὰ τὰ ἐκείνων, τὰ μὲν ἐκκυλίσας ἠφάνισε, τὰ δὲ ἑαυτοῦ κατέλιπε, διαγνωσθῆναί τε καὶ φωραθῆναι δι’ ὁμοιότητα μὴ δυνάμενα. καὶ οἱ μὲν ὄρνιθες οἱ προειρημένοι τὰ μηδὲν σφίσι προσήκοντα ἐκγλύφουσιν, ὑποπηγνύμενα δὲ ἐκεῖνα ἑαυτοῖς συνεγνωκότα τὴν νοθείαν ἐκπέτεταί τε καὶ παρὰ τὸν γεινάμενον στέλλεται· τῶν γὰρ πτερῶν αὐτοῖς περιχυθέντων γνωρίζεται ἀλλότρια ὄντα, καὶ αἰκίζεται πικρότατα. ὁρᾶται δὲ μίαν ὥραν τοῦ ἔτους τὴν ἀρίστην ὁ κόκκυξ· ἦρος γὰρ ὑπαρχομένου καὶ αὐτὸς ἐμφανής ἐστιν ἐς ἀνατολὰς Σειρίου, εἶτα τῆς τῶν πολλῶν ὄψεως ἀνεχώρησεν.

  Aelian (c. 200 AD). De natura animalium 3, 30.]

  1866

  der Nest- und Brutparasitismus einiger Vögel

  Schmarda, L.K. (1866). Die Thiergeographie und ihre Aufgabe. Geographisches Jahrbuch 1, 402-427: 416.

  1904

  What is called Brood Parasitism, where an animal shirks the duty of bringing up its young […] is by no means the same thing as true parasitism.

  Davis, J.R.A. (1904). The Natural History of Animals. The Animal Life of the World in its Various Aspects and Relations, vol. 7: 185.

  1910

  The larvæ of Lomechusa and Atemeles are reared by the ants like their own brood; they are licked, fed with regurgitated food and before pupation covered or embedded in cells like their own larvæ. When the nest is disturbed they are carried by the ants in preference to their own larvæ and pupæ to a place of safety. The predilection of the ants for these adopted larvæ is all the more remarkable because they are the worst enemies of the ant-brood and devour enormous numbers of the eggs and larvæ of their hosts. This brood parasitism, in fact, causes the development of abortive individuals intermediate between the female and worker castes, and these intermediates, which I have called pseudogynes, gradually bring about a degeneration of the parasitized colonies.

  Wheeler, W.M. (1910). Ants. Their Structure, Development and Behavior: 406.

  1982

  brood parasitism The use of a host species to brood the young of another species (the parasite). 

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 37.