Kleptoparasitism

Kleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food that was caught, collected, or otherwise prepared by another animal, including stored food. Examples of this last case include cuckoo bees, which lay their eggs on the pollen masses made by other bees, or the hosts of parasitic or parasitoid wasps. The term is also used to describe the stealing of nest material or other inanimate objects from one animal by another.A cheetah has killed an impala (and eaten part of it), creating a target for kleptoparasitismThree minutes later: this spotted hyena and another are running toward the kill38 seconds later: The cheetah has fled without resistance. The vultures will also engage in kleptoparasitism: when the hyenas move a piece of the carcass, the vultures will take scraps from the ground. Kleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food that was caught, collected, or otherwise prepared by another animal, including stored food. Examples of this last case include cuckoo bees, which lay their eggs on the pollen masses made by other bees, or the hosts of parasitic or parasitoid wasps. The term is also used to describe the stealing of nest material or other inanimate objects from one animal by another. The kleptoparasite gains prey or objects not otherwise obtainable or which otherwise require time and effort. However, the kleptoparasite might be injured by the victim in cases in which the latter defends its prey. Kleptopredation is the practice of choosing prey that has recently fed. Kleptoparasitism may be intraspecific (the parasite is the same species as the victim) or interspecific (the parasite is a different species). In the latter case, the parasites are commonly close relatives of the organisms they parasitize ('Emery's Rule'). Animals that have extraordinarily specialized feeding methods are often targets of kleptoparasitism. For example, oystercatchers are unusual in being able to break through the shells of mussels; adult oystercatchers suffer intraspecific kleptoparasitism from juveniles that are not yet strong or skillful enough to open mussels easily. A fox or a coyote could lose its kill to a brown bear, gray wolf, or even a bald eagle. Diving birds that bring their prey to the surface suffer interspecific kleptoparasitism from gulls, which are unable to fetch fish from the sea floor themselves. Chinstrap penguins also actively engage in kleptoparasitism, being known to steal rocks and other nest materials from members of their colony for use in their own nest. There are many lineages of cuckoo bees, all of which lay their eggs in the nest cells of other bees, often within the same family. Bombus bohemicus, for example, parasitises several other species of Bombus, including Bombus terrestris, Bombus lucorum (white-tailed bumblebee), and Bombus cryptarum. The largest monophyletic lineage of kleptoparasitic bees is Nomadinae (a subfamily of Apidae), which comprises several hundred species in 35 genera, all of which are kleptoparasites. The cuckoo wasps include the family Chrysididae. Many species of chrysidid lay their eggs in the nests of potter and mud dauber wasps. Other families of wasps have 'cuckoo' species that parasitise related species, as for example the vespid Polistes sulcifer, which parasitises a related species, Polistes dominula. Numerous other wasp families have genera or larger lineages of which some or all members are kleptoparasitic (e.g., the genus Ceropales in Pompilidae and the tribe Nyssonini in Crabronidae). While these insects are usually referred to as kleptoparasites other terms used (not exact synonyms) are inquiline and brood parasite. Another term used is kleptoparasitoid which has been defined as a 'parasitoid that increases its reproductive success at the cost of another parasitoid, by preferring hosts that have been parasitized (or sometimes only found) by another female'. Kleptoparasitoids may make use of the punctures made by previous parasitoids on their hosts; make use of the trails or traces left by parasitoids to locate hosts; or use hosts that have already been weakened by other parasitoids. Some flies are kleptoparasites, which is especially common in the subfamily Miltogramminae of the family Sarcophagidae. There are also some kleptoparasites in the families Chloropidae and Milichiidae. Some adult milichiids, for example, visit spider webs where they scavenge on half-eaten stink bugs. Others are associated with robber flies (Asilidae), or Crematogaster ants. Flies in the genus Bengalia (Calliphoridae) steal food and pupae transported by ants and are often found beside their foraging trails. Musca albina (Muscidae) reportedly shows kleptoparasitic behaviour, laying eggs only in dung balls being interred by one out of several co-occurring dung-rolling scarab species. Scarab dung beetles relocate vast amounts of vertebrate dung to establish their nests. A few species do not transport dung materials, but merely use reserves made by other species, either 'roller' or 'tunneller'. Examples are the genus Cleptocaccobius (small species parasiting balls of roller dung beetles), and the genus Pedaria (whose species nidificate in the nests of large tunneller dung beetles in tropical Africa). Many semiaquatic bugs (Heteroptera) are known to engage in kleptoparastism of prey. In one study, whenever the bug Velia caprai (water cricket) took prey heavier than 7.9 g, other bugs of the same species joined it and successfully ate parts of the prey.