Bats provide essential ecosystem services and some are cave dependent. Caves favour the association of bats with ectoparasite Diptera, however, they are poorly sampled in the Amazon biome. Here we present the first description of a community of bats and bat flies from the largest sandstone cave in Brazil, the Planaltina cave, located in the municipality of Brasil Novo, state of Pará. Diptera were removed from captured bats and taken to the laboratory for identification. From nine species of bats belonging to four families we recorded 17 species of Diptera, 13 were monoxenous. A possible explanation for the monoxenous parasites collected is that flies have poor survival in unusual hosts. These results are an indicator that the Streblid species are host-specific since even if the hosts take refuge in the same cave, they will not share their parasites. Therefore, the present study provides important information on the parasite-host dynamics in a cave, thus highlighting the importance of cave as are essential shelters for bat species and, despite reported cases of cohabitation, mixed colonies are unlikely to form.
Considering the diversity of non-flying small mammals in the Neotropical region, the impact of landscape change and the lack of knowledge about the real impacts on this megagroup, we developed a scientometric analysis over a 50-year interval. The study focuses on neotropical countries, especially Brazil, and aims to point out how these communities are structured in different environments. We searched for word combinations in the databases of the Science, Scielo and Scopus websites, resulting in 5,144 records, of which 2,941 were removed from the analysis due to their inadequacy to our topic. Of the 2,203 manuscripts that fit the objective of our study, 816 articles were carried out in Brazil, representing 46% of all publications related to the Neotropical region. The biome with the highest number of publications was the Atlantic Forest. While the knowledge gaps about the Cerrado and Amazon biomes are still evident. It is known that, in Brazil, the inequality in the concentration of investments in research is also reflected in quality scientific production. In this sense, our results highlight the need for a serious policy of investments in science and technology in the country, with partnerships between states and evaluation of the least studied biomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.