Parent sex ratio allocation has consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, and conservation. Theory predicts that parents should adjust offspring sex ratio when the fitness returns of producing male or female offspring varies. Previous studies have assumed that only mothers are capable of biasing offspring sex ratios, and neglected fathers given the expectation of an equal proportion of X- and Y-chromosome bearing sperm (CBS) in ejaculates due to sex chromosomes segregation at meiosis. This assumption...

Aim Parasites are a major component of global ecosystems, yet spatial variation in parasite diversity is poorly known, largely because their occurrence data are limited and thus difficult to interpret. Using a recently compiled database of parasite occurrences, we compare different models which we use to infer parasite geographic ranges and parasite species richness across the globe. Innovation To date, most studies exploring spatial patterns of parasite diversity assumed, with little validation, that the geographic...