Dípteros ectoparásitos asociados a la quiropterofauna (Mammalia: Chiroptera) en la vereda Miravalles, El Castillo, Meta-Colombia.

Abstract

Bats are organisms that are characterized by presenting one of the clearest examples of Coevolution since they show associations with a large number of arthropods, among which are the parasitic bat flies. Unfortunately, efforts to understand these ectoparasites in Colombia are few and are limited to work done in the northern region of the country, so it is necessary to expand the areas of work to places where studies on this topic are few, such as the department of Meta. This is why this work aims to show the first sampling efforts to describe the associations between bats and ectoparasite Diptera in the village of Miravalles (El Castillo-Meta). A total of one hundred thirty-eight (138) bats were determined, belonging to twenty-two (22) species and three (3) families, where the most abundant species were Carollia brevicauda followed by Carollia perspicillata and Sturnira tildae. Hosts were examined for ectoparasitic diptera. In these determinations are reported ten (10) genera and two (2) families of ectoparasite diptera representative for the neotropical region, which are Streblidae with nine (9) genera and Nycteribiidae with one (1) genus. Among the associations to stand out is that of Artibeus glaucus, Artibeus obscurus and Artibeus planirostris with the genus Neotrichobius, as well as the association of the genus Trichobius with the species of Carollia perspicillata, Carollia brevicauda and Carollia castanea together with its high prevalence in these bat species. Differences between morphospecies of ectoparasite diptera in different hosts are shown and it is suggested that this is due to the type of social organization and perch site. A phylogeny of the Chiroptera species present in the trail was also carried out to identify which genera have monoxenic, oligoxenic, and pleoxenic behavior. It was found that most of the ectoparasitic diptera genera in the Miravalles trail are of the pleoxenic type, so it is concluded that the Miravalles trail is a place that presents a high diversity of bats and ectoparasitic diptera, being the family Streblidae the most significant in terms of the presence of parasitic agents, highlighting in it the genus Trichobius and its multiple associations with hosts of different genera, together with this it is also concluded that the disturbances caused in the different types of coverage sampled can have a high incidence in the dynamics of the parasite-host relationship.