This study describes the diversity of ectoparasitic bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. Fieldwork was carried out from June 2010 to January 2012 in seven municipalities of Yucatan, where 13 sampling sites were selected to capture bats using mist nets. Over 156 sampling nights a total of 910 bats were captured; these belonged to 19 species in four families: Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, Natalidae, and Vespertilionidae. Phyllostomidae was the richest family (13 bat species), followed by Mormoopidae (3 spp.), Vespertilionidae (2 spp.), and Natalidae (1 spp.). After careful inspection of the bats, a total of 2,134 Streblid bat flies were collected, belonging to 17 species in six genera (Nycterophilia coxata Ferris, N. natali Wenzel, Trichobius diphyllae Wenzel, T. dugesii Townsend, T. galei Wenzel, T. hirsutulus Bequaert, T. intermedius Peterson and Hurka, T. parasiticus Gervais, T. uniformis Curran, T. yunkeri Wenzel, Megistopoda aranea Coquillett, M. proxima Séguy, Aspidoptera delatorrei Wenzel, Strebla alvarezi Wenzel, S. diphyllae Wenzel, S. wiedemanni Kolenati, and Metelasmus pseudopterus Coquillett). The richest and most diverse genus was Trichobius. Five species--N. natali, T. diphyllae, M. proxima, A. delatorrei, and M. pseudopterus, are new records for Yucatan, and T. galei is a new record for the country, increasing the total number of Streblidae species for Mexico to 49.

Ectoparasitism in bats seems to be influenced strongly by the type of roost preferred by the hosts, and group size; however, the effect of habitat loss and fragmentation on the prevalence of ectoparasites in bats has scarcely been studied. In northeastern Yucatan, Mexico, we estimated the prevalence of infestation by Streblidae flies in three phyllostomid bat species with different roost preferences (caves, trees, or both) in two types of landscape matrices (tropical semi-deciduous forest and man-made pastures) that differed in area of forest cover and the number of forest fragments. Habitat fragmentation and the presence of a contrasting matrix may limit the availability of roosts (trees) and the movement of bats across the landscape. Accordingly, we hypothesized higher prevalence of Streblidae infestation in the pasture matrix and in the group of bats that roost in trees. Bat abundance was higher in the pasture matrix; however, the prevalence of infestation was significantly higher in the continuous forest matrix and in bats that roosted in caves. The prevalence of some species of Streblidae was affected by habitat fragmentation in species that roost in caves, such as Desmodus rotundus, as well as those using foliage and caves, such as Artibeus jamaicensis. Our results provide evidence that some species of Streblidae may respond differently to habitat fragmentation than their hosts, generating changes to bat-ectoparasite interactions in fragmented areas. Environmental variations involving roosts, not evaluated in this study, may influence our results, since these factors affect ectoparasite abundance and reproduction.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Capturamos murciélagos del 2010 al 2012 en una selva alta perennifolia, un acahual, plantaciones de hule y en cuevas. Se revisaron 378 murciélagos pertenecientes a 26 especies de las familias Natalidae, Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae y Vespertilionidae, de los cuales 251 se encontraron parasitados. Se recolectaron 616 ejemplares pertenecientes a 32 especies moscas. Se obtuvieron 4 nuevos registros de especies para México: Mastoptera minuta Costa Lima, Trichobius flagellatus Wenzel, Strebla chrotopteri Wenzel (Streblidae) y Basilia ortizi Machado-Allison (Nycteribiidae). También se amplía la distribución en el país para Megistopoda aranea Coquillett,

Se reportan dos nuevos registros de moscas ectoparásitas de murciélagos (Diptera: Streblidae) para México (Trichobius brennani y Anatrichobius scorzai), así como otros seis nuevos registros para el estado de Veracruz, recolectados sobre sus murciélagos hospederos pertenecientes a las familias Phyllostomidae y Vespertilionidae. De acuerdo con esta información, se actualiza la lista de Streblidae para México a 51 especies, de las cuales 23 se distribuyen en el Estado de Veracruz.