Journal
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Volume 101, Issue 4, Pages 979-989Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyaa075
Keywords
bat migration; ectoparasitism; host-parasite system; infestation; movement patterns
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Funding
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) [CVU 865978]
- Universidad de Costa Rica [OAICE-049-2017]
- Rufford Small Grants Foundation [21906-1]
- Arizona Game and Fish Department
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Latitudinal migration increases fitness of migrants by allowing them to exploit favorable conditions in nonadjacent geographic regions. Other consequences also may follow, such as interactions with parasites. Migrants may have lower parasite prevalence and abundance than resident individuals because of their ability to abandon infested areas or due to mortality of highly infested hosts. To further understand whether variation in ectoparasite loads is influenced by migration, we investigated whetherprevalence and abundance of two species of obligate ectoparasites, the wing mite Periglischrus paracaligus (Mesostigmata: Spinturnicidae) and the bat fly Nycterophilia coxata (Diptera: Streblidae, Nycterophiliinae), of the lesser long-nosed bat, Leptonycteris yerbabuenae, varied between migratory and resident populations throughout their range in Mexico. We examined the presence or absence of migratory behavior, as well as sex and reproductive status of the host because ectoparasitism differentially affects the sexes. Our results showed that the prevalence of both ectoparasites did not vary between migrant and resident females or males, but abundance of the wing mite P. paracaligus was lower in migrant females compared with resident females, with an important influence from the reproductive status of the host. A partial negative relationship between ectoparasite loads and latitudinal migration therefore was demonstrated.
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