Streblidae (Diptera) of Phyllostomid Bats from Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

Eight streblid species were collected from eight phyllostomid bat species, from April to November 1997, at Only one bat species was caught at "CAF -Santa Bárbara", near PERD. Bats were captured at night using mist nets, identified and released after their ectoparasites were removed. Batflies were sampled by brushing the hosts and by using tweezers to capture them on the bats' fur. A voucher collection of streblid flies, preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol, and voucher bat specimens were deposited respectively at Department of Parasitology and Department of Zoology, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.A total of 57 phyllostomid bats belonging to 11 species and 8 genera were captured, as well as 48 streblid flies (5 genera and 8 species). The following hosts and parasites species were collected: bat species -Artibeus fimbriatus Gray, Artibeus lituratus (Ofers), Artibeus obscurus Schinz, Carollia perspicillata (Linnaeus), Desmodus rotundus (Geoffroy), Glossophaga soricina Table. All batflies species were associated with a single species of the host, except for P. longicrus and T. joblingi, which were recorded on three bat species. According to A. lituratus and D. rotundus would represent occasional hosts for T. joblingi, which appears to be primarily a parasite of C. perpicillata. On the other hand, as Wenzel and Tipton (1966) discussed, P. longicrus might occur on different stenodermatine hosts at different altitudinal elevations. According to Guerrero (1997), P. longicrus was already reported on several bat species of the genus Artibeus, and on P. lineatus. Contrary to Komeno and Linhares (1999) suggestion, P. lineatus could be considered as a common host for P. longicrus.Fifty per cent of host species harbored only one parasite species, whereas the other half was infested by two streblid species. Probably due to the small sample size, no batflies were found on A. obscurus, P. recifinus and V. pusilla. Although some species of streblid flies had already been reported on A. obscurus and on V. pusilla (Guerrero 1997), there are no records of ectoparasitism on P. recifinus. The associations between C. perspicillata, P. lineatus and S. lilium and their parasites agree with the recent findings of Komeno and Linhares (1999) who also studied batflies from Minas Gerais. Likewise, even though those researchers have examined more bats than we did, in general the total mean abundance of infestation was 0.8 streblid flies per host in both studies (Table). Whitaker and Mumford (1977) had previously recorded two streblid flies species on a single Noctilio leporinus (Linnaeus) (Noctilionidae) at PERD, which were not captured in the present study: Noctiliostrebla aitkeni Wenzel and Paradyschiria fusca Speiser. Therefore, ten batflies species are known so far from PERD. However, this num-

Descriptive ecology of bat flies (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) associated with vampire bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in the cerrado of Central Brazil

“…The available data show that the mean abundance registered for the cerrado was 0.9 (Azevedo & Linardi 2002), compared to the southern Atlantic rainforest values of 0.54 and 0.61 (Graciolli & Rui 2001, Bertola et al 2005. In the present study, prevalence, mean intensity of infestation and mean abundance were high for all three hematophagous bat species.…”

Bat flies on phyllostomid hosts in the Cerrado region: component community, prevalence and intensity of parasitism

“…In other localities in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest regions, P. lineatus appears to be infested only by Paratrichobius longicrus (Komeno & Linhares 1999, Azevedo & Linardi 2002, Bertola et al 2005, Graciolli et al 2010). In reality, P. longicrus is a species complex that is found on the bat genera Artibeus, Uroderma and Platyrrhinus.…”

“…However, component communities of streblids on G. soricina differed between bat populations in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest regions. T. dugesii is the only species that parasitizes G. soricina in both regions, whereas Anastrebla caudiferae and Trichobius lonchophyllae have only been reported in the Atlantic Forest region (Graciolli & Rui 2001, Azevedo & Linardi 2002, Bertola et al 2005.…”

Streblidae (Diptera) on bats (Chiroptera) in an area of Atlantic Forest, state of Rio de Janeiro

“…Some streblids, such as Megistopoda Macquart, 1852, and Aspidoptera Coquillett, 1899, were expected to occur in the state of Rio de Janeiro because of their association with hosts already listed for this state and for the Atlantic Forest, such as Artibeus and Sturnira Gray, 1842 (KOMENO;LINHARES, 1999;AZEVEDO;BERTOLA et al, 2005;GRACIOLLI et al, 2006). Other species cited here have seldom been reported in Brazil, probably due to the low numbers of their hosts that have been caught, such as the bat flies found on M. minuta, L. peracchii, V. pusilla and D. ecaudata.…”