Knutie et al. 1 2 3 4 Galápagos mockingbirds tolerate introduced parasites 5 that affect Darwin’s finches 6 7 Sarah A. Knutie1,4*, Jeb P. Owen2, Sabrina M. McNew1, Andrew W. Bartlow1, 8 Elena Arriero3, Jordan M. Herman1, Emily DiBlasi1, Michael Thompson1, 9 Jennifer A.H. Koop1,5, and Dale H. Clayton1 10 11 12 13 Affiliations: 14 1Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. 15 2Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. 16 3Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, Complutense University of Madrid, E- 17 28040 Madrid, Spain. 18 4Current address: Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 19 33620, USA. 20 5Current address: University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Biology Department, Dartmouth, MA 21 02747, USA. 22 23 *Corresponding author:
[email protected] 1 Knutie et al. 24 Abstract. Introduced parasites threaten native host species that lack effective defenses. Such 25 parasites increase the risk of extinction, particularly in small host populations, like those on 26 islands. If some host species are tolerant to introduced parasites, this could amplify the risk of 27 the parasite to vulnerable host species. Recently, the introduced parasitic nest fly Philornis 28 downsi has been implicated in the decline of Darwin’s finch populations in the Galápagos Islands. 29 In some years, 100% of finch nests fail due to P. downsi; however, other common host species 30 nesting near Darwin’s finches, such as the endemic Galápagos mockingbird (Mimus parvulus), 31 appear to be less affected by P. downsi. 32 We compared effects of P.