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Individuals can alter their behaviour and other traits to reduce threats from predators and parasites. However, predators and parasites likely elicit different responses, which subsequently lead to different non-lethal effects. We created a sequentially structured framework to examine trait responses to distinct predatory and parasitic consumers. We predicted that parasites with strong negative effects on host fitness should act like predators and elicit strong responses before attack. We also predicted that less damaging parasites and micropredators should elicit diverse responses across multiple interaction stages, because their hosts and prey remain alive while being eaten. A meta-analysis indicated that predators do tend to elicit stronger responses than parasites before attack, whereas parasites generally elicit responses after attack, albeit weaker than pre-attack responses to predators. Organisms exposed simultaneously to predator and parasite cues responded similarly when exposed to predator cues alone, suggesting that individuals prioritize anti-predator responses over responses to less harmful parasites. Extending these findings requires addressing knowledge gaps concerning responses to different consumer types, costs of immune responses, and cumulative effects of repeated responses. Expanding research beyond the predator vs. parasite dichotomy toward a broader consumer-resource perspective will facilitate understanding of non-lethal effects in complex, multi-trophic food webs.

An update is provided of current knowledge of the herpetofauna and batrachofauna recorded from caves in Gabon, western Equatorial Africa. No systematic field survey of reptiles and amphibians in Gabonese cave environments has yet been made, and data are available for only 19 (complexes of) caves. This compilation of published records and new observations includes seven reptile and at least nine amphibian species. None of them is restricted to cave environments, and most of the species are adaptable ecologically, being known from pristine as well as from highly degraded environments. All of them can be regarded as trogloxenes. Dedicated surveys, using appropriate methods, will certainly increase this species list considerably.