Se estudió a las moscas parásitas (Diptera: Streblidae) en una comunidad de murciélagos en la cueva de San Francisco, Chiapas. Los datos se obtuvieron entre febrero y agosto de 2013 mediante captura y revisión de 569 individuos de 12 especies de murciélagos. Se identificaron 3 especies de moscas: Trichobius joblingi, Metelasmus pseudopterus y Megistopoda aranea; T. joblingi se presentó en 6 especies de murciélagos mostrando los mayores valores de prevalencia y abundancia. En este trabajo se registra por primera vez en México la presencia simultánea de estas 3 especies como parásitos en Artibeus jamaicensis, además, la presencia de T. joblingi es un nuevo registro para A. jamaicensis y Pteronotus parnellii en Chiapas. La mayor prevalencia y abundancia de T. joblingi se presentó en hembras de Desmodus rotundus y en juveniles de A. jamaicensis, aunque no se encontró diferencia en la intensidad de infección, lo que demuestra que las características biológicas, como el sexo y la edad de los hospederos, pueden influir en la relación ectoparásito-hospedero. Se sugiere que la prevalencia, abundancia e intensidad de infección de ectoparásitos también podrían relacionarse con patrones de conducta social y hábitos de refugio.
Seasonality causes fluctuations in the availability of resources, affecting the presence and abundance of animal species. These fluctuations can have an impact on parasite-host relationships, which in turn can be exacerbated by microclimatic changes to which bat-flies are exposed. We characterized the bat-fly load and evaluated the effect of seasonality on five bat species in a dry forest. We evaluated variations in microclimatic conditions inside the cave Cerro Huatulco between seasons and the response of the bat-fly load. We collected 1165 bat-fly specimens belonging to 16 species from 688 bats. The obtained results indicate that the mean abundance and infestation intensity exhibited changes between seasons in Artibeus jamaicensis, Desmodus rotundus, Glossophaga soricina, and Pteronotus parnellii. In the case of the effect of microclimate conditions, we observed that prevalence is negatively correlated with temperature in G. soricina, while mean abundance and mean infestation intensity were negatively related to temperature in A. jamaicensis and G. soricina. The present study provides significant information about host-parasite relationships in a dry forest and discusses the relevance of abiotic and biotic factors that could affect host-parasite interactions, as well as the importance of each parasite load parameter for the understanding of this interaction.
Species richness and parasitic prevalence of bat flies in a bat cave community in Oaxaca are reported. Between 2016 and 2018, a total of 732 bats were captured and inspected for streblids. We recorded 15 bat species from 3 families and obtained 1,317 streblid specimens corresponding to 24 species and 8 genera, including 19 species that are new records for the state:
A new species of Trichobius Gervais, 1844 (Diptera: Streblidae) is described from specimens in Jalisco, Mexico, from host bat Choeronycteris mexicana Tschudi. We consider the new species described is related to the "dugesii" group, since it shares certain characteristics those of T. angulatus and T. tiptoni, but it results easy to differentiate from all the known species due to the cheatotaxis of the thorax in which the prescutum setae, and the lateral setae are very long, while the discal setae are abruptly smaller and denser. It also presents the metasternal lobe, which is very broad and translucent.
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