RESUMO
This study describes the diversity of ectoparasitic bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. Fieldwork was carried out from June 2010 to January 2012 in seven municipalities of Yucatan, where 13 sampling sites were selected to capture bats using mist nets. Over 156 sampling nights a total of 910 bats were captured; these belonged to 19 species in four families: Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, Natalidae, and Vespertilionidae. Phyllostomidae was the richest family (13 bat species), followed by Mormoopidae (3 spp.), Vespertilionidae (2 spp.), and Natalidae (1 spp.). After careful inspection of the bats, a total of 2,134 Streblid bat flies were collected, belonging to 17 species in six genera (Nycterophilia coxata Ferris, N. natali Wenzel, Trichobius diphyllae Wenzel, T. dugesii Townsend, T. galei Wenzel, T. hirsutulus Bequaert, T. intermedius Peterson and Hurka, T. parasiticus Gervais, T. uniformis Curran, T. yunkeri Wenzel, Megistopoda aranea Coquillett, M. proxima Séguy, Aspidoptera delatorrei Wenzel, Strebla alvarezi Wenzel, S. diphyllae Wenzel, S. wiedemanni Kolenati, and Metelasmus pseudopterus Coquillett). The richest and most diverse genus was Trichobius. Five species--N. natali, T. diphyllae, M. proxima, A. delatorrei, and M. pseudopterus, are new records for Yucatan, and T. galei is a new record for the country, increasing the total number of Streblidae species for Mexico to 49.
Assuntos
Quirópteros/parasitologia , Dípteros/classificação , Dípteros/fisiologia , Animais , Biodiversidade , Feminino , Masculino , MéxicoRESUMO
Bat acoustic libraries are important tools that assemble echolocation calls to allow the comparison and discrimination to confirm species identifications. The Sonozotz project represents the first nation-wide library of bat echolocation calls for a megadiverse country. It was assembled following a standardized recording protocol that aimed to cover different recording habitats, recording techniques, and call variation inherent to individuals. The Sonozotz project included 69 species of echolocating bats, a high species richness that represents 50% of bat species found in the country. We include recommendations on how the database can be used and how the sampling methods can be potentially replicated in countries with similar environmental and geographic conditions. To our knowledge, this represents the most exhaustive effort to date to document and compile the diversity of bat echolocation calls for a megadiverse country. This database will be useful to address a range of ecological questions including the effects of anthropogenic activities on bat communities through the analysis of bat sound.