Title
Seasonal variation of bat-flies (Diptera: Streblidae) in four bat species from a tropical dry forest
Date Issued
01 March 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Salinas-Ramos V.B.
Zaldívar-Riverón A.
Rebollo-Hernández A.
Herrera-M L.G.
Publisher(s)
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Abstract
Seasonality of climate promotes differences in abundance and species composition of parasites, affecting host-parasite interactions. Studies have reported seasonal variation in bat-flies, which are obligate bat ectoparasites. We characterized the bat-fly load of three insectivores [Pteronotus davyi (Gray), Pteronotus parnellii (Gray) and Pteronotus personatus (Wagner)] and one nectarivorous [Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (Martínez and Villa-R.)] bat species in a tropical dry forest to test the existence of seasonality in response to the availability of resources during the wet and dry seasons. We collected 3710 bat-fly specimens belonging to six species and two genera from 497 bats. Most of the ectoparasite load parameters examined (mean abundance, mean intensity, richness, etc.), including comparisons among reproductive conditions and sex of the host, were similar in both seasons. Prevalence was the parameter that varied the most between seasons. The six bat-fly species were found in all bat species except P. personatus. The latter species and L. yerbabuenae had four and five bat-fly species in the wet and dry seasons, respectively. This study provides significant information of ectoparasites ecology in relation to seasonality, contributes to the understanding of host-parasite relationships in tropical dry forests and discusses the relevance of the abiotic and biotic factors that could impact host-parasite interactions.
Start page
133
End page
143
Volume
82
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ecología
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Parasitología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85046038712
Source
Mammalia
ISSN of the container
00251461
DOI of the container
10.1515/mammalia-2016-0176
Sponsor(s)
Acknowledgments: We thank A. Cuxim-Koyoc for his help with bat-fly identification, S. Sánchez-Montes for his suggestions with the statistical analyses and E. Samacá-Sáez for his help in the laboratory. VBSR was supported by a scholarship given by CONACyT as part of the Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Financial support was provided by grants given by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tec-nología (CONACyT, Red Temática del Código de Barras de la Vida, 2013–2015) to V. León-Règagnon and AZR, grants given by CONACyT (proyecto Ciencia Básica 2014 no. 220454) and Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DGAPA-UNAM; no. IN207016) to AZR and a grant given by DGAPA-UNAM (no. IN202113) to LGHM. We thank the Programa de Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto de Biología (IB-UNAM) and Estación de Biología Chamela, UNAM, for logistical support during the study.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus