Individual hosts vary substantially in their parasite loads. However, whether individual hosts have consistently different loads remains uncertain. If so, hosts that have consistently high parasite loads may serve as key reservoirs or super‐spreaders. Thus, identifying whether individuals persistently differ in their parasitism and the factors that explain these patterns constitute important issues for disease ecology and management. To investigate these topics, we examined nine years of tick counts in a wild population of sleepy lizards Tiliqua rugosa. Lizards were individually marked, and throughout their activity season, often across several years, we repeatedly assessed lizards’ ticks (to stage – larva, nymph, adult male and adult female – and species, either Bothriocroton hydrosauri or Amblyomma limbatum). Using these repeated individual measures, we determined whether tick counts were repeatable. Then, we tested predictors of average tick counts, particularly lizard mass, sex, behavioural type (aggression and boldness), and the distance between lizards’ home range centre and a road transecting the study site (an area of greater food and lizard activity). We found that lizards exhibited consistent individual differences in tick loads both within and across years. Within‐lizard yearly average counts of larvae and nymphs were positively correlated. Lizards closer to the road tended to have more larvae and nymphs of both species and more adult B. hydrosauri. Sex did not affect tick counts. Mass differentially affected adult female A. limbatum and adult male B. hydrosauri tick counts. Intriguingly, lizards with above average aggression but below average boldness, or vice versa, tended to have higher average adult female B. hydrosauri tick counts. Ultimately, our results demonstrate that lizards differed consistently in their tick counts, indicating that lizard parasitism may constitute a phenotypic trait of the individual, with implications for both host–parasite dynamics and broader host ecology.

中文翻译：

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长寿蜥蜴宿主外寄生虫的一致个体差异

个体寄主的寄生虫负荷差异很大。但是，各个主机是否始终具有不同的负载仍然不确定。如果是这样，寄生虫负荷一直很高的宿主可以充当关键的水库或超级传播者。因此，确定个体寄生虫是否持续存在差异以及解释这些模式的因素构成了疾病生态和管理的重要问题。为了调查这些主题，我们检查了困蜥蜴野生虎ili野生种群中九年的tick计数。对蜥蜴进行了单独标记，并且在整个活动季节中（通常跨几年），我们反复评估了蜥蜴的tick虫（到阶段–幼虫，若虫，成年雄性和成年雌性–以及物种，Brioriocroton hydrosauri或Amblyomma limbatum）。通过使用这些重复的单独度量，我们确定了滴答计数是否可重复。然后，我们测试了平均tick虫计数的预测因子，尤其是蜥蜴的体重，性别，行为类型（攻击性和大胆程度）以及蜥蜴的家畜中心和横穿研究地点的道路之间的距离（食物和蜥蜴活动较多的区域） 。我们发现，蜥蜴在数年之内和多年间都表现出一致的个体滴答负荷差异。蜥蜴内幼虫和若虫的年平均计数呈正相关。靠近道路的蜥蜴往往都有两种幼虫和若虫，以及成年的B. hydrosauri。性别不影响tick数。质量差异影响成年雌性A. Lingatum和成年雄性B. Hydrosauri tick计数。有趣的是，攻击性高于平均水平但胆识低于平均水平的蜥蜴，其成年雌性B. hydrosauri tick虱的平均计数往往较高。最终，我们的结果表明，蜥蜴的tick计数始终存在差异，这表明蜥蜴的寄生性可能构成了个体的表型特征，对寄主－寄生虫动力学和更广泛的寄主生态都有影响。