A comparative study of the arthropod fauna in stork, barn swallow and common pigeon nests

Abstract

An analysis was conducted on the arthropod fauna collected from stork, swallow, and pigeon nests during summer 2018 in three regions of north-eastern Algeria (Guelma, El-Tarf, and Annaba). A total of 40 nests was examined, of which 58% were infested with arthropods. Arthropods were less abundant and species rich in swallow nests than in pigeon or stork nests, where a greater dominance of mesostigmatic mites (78.71% and 72.41%, respectively) was found. Dermanyssus gallinae was the most abundant (33.05%) and most frequent (73.33%) mesostigmatic mite in pigeon nests, while uropodina mites were dominant (41.37%) in white stork nests with a frequency of 76.92% of the nests analysed. In swallow nests, the following arthropods were found: Psocodea, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera belonging to the class Insecta and Isopoda belonging to the class Malacostraca. This is the first comparative survey of arthropods occupying the nests of these bird species in northern Algeria. It is anticipated that these data, that highlight the richness of the arthropod fauna in the nests of these bird species, will motivate further research aimed at characterising the arthropod community in different bird nests and determining the nature of the relationships between them.