See you later: roost fidelity of the "Boomerang Bats",Artibeus lituratus (Olfers, 1818) (Mammalia, Chiroptera) / Até mais tarde: fidelidade de abrigo dos "Morcegos Boomerang", Artibeus lituratus (Olfers, 1818) (Mammalia, Chiroptera)

Animals exhibit sociability behaviors and spatial use patterns that are important for species survival. Bats are animals that exhibit complex patterns of aggregation of individuals, which can vary according to sex and age. Aggregation can be explained by active or passive mechanisms. In this behavioural note, we report a group of female Artibeus lituratus in the reproductive stage that exhibits aggregation behavior supporting the active mechanism hypothesis. The females returned to the same roost, for two reproductive season, maintaining the aggregation with the same individuals with which the social bonds were already established.

Os animais exibem comportamentos de sociabilidade e padrões de uso espacial que são importantes para a sobrevivência das espécies. Os morcegos são animais que apresentam padrões complexos de agregação de indivíduos, que podem variar de acordo com o sexo e a idade. A agregação pode ser explicada por mecanismos ativos ou passivos. Nesta nota comportamental, relatamos um grupo de fêmeas de Artibeus lituratus em fase reprodutiva que exibe comportamento de agregação apoiando a hipótese do mecanismo ativo. As fêmeas retornaram ao mesmo poleiro, por duas estações reprodutivas, mantendo a agregação com os mesmos indivíduos com os quais os laços sociais já foram estabelecidos.

Non-invasive monitoring of adrenocortical activity in the Gould's wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldii).

Although bats are the second most species-rich mammalian order, very little is known about their endocrine physiology. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are commonly associated with the stress response, but also modulate vital physiological functions which help animals adapt to their environment. Understanding normal patterns of adrenocortical activity can provide valuable insights into a species' fitness. Non-invasive hormone monitoring via faecal samples provides an integrated measure of adrenocortical activity while minimising stress on the animal but must be properly validated to ensure reliable results. The goal of this study was to validate an enzyme immunoassay for monitoring faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs) in a common Australian insectivorous bat species, the Gould's wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldii). We compared the performance of five assays for monitoring changes in FGMs following capture and transfer of C.gouldii from the wild to captivity. Four of the five assays detected a significant increase in FGMs following capture, but the magnitude of the increase and consistency across individuals differed considerably. We selected the UVM-69a assay as the best performing assay to then describe normative patterns of adrenocortical activity in the species. Males had higher FGM levels than females, and juveniles had higher FGM levels than adults. Individuals with poorer body condition had higher FGM levels. We also demonstrate seasonal patterns of FGMs with higher levels in March and April corresponding with reproductive up-regulation and lower levels in May and November. Our study is the first of its kind to examine adrenocortical activity in an Australian insectivorous bat and provides a valuable tool for studying this species. Understanding adrenal function in common species such as C.gouldii can shed light on the physiological mechanisms facilitating survival and success in changing environments.

Bats as instructive animal models for studying longevity and aging.

Bats (order Chiroptera) are emerging as instructive animal models for aging studies. Unlike some common laboratory species, they meet a central criterion for aging studies: they live for a long time in the wild or in captivity, for 20, 30, and even >40 years. Healthy aging (i.e., healthspan) in bats has drawn attention to their potential to improve the lives of aging humans due to bat imperviousness to viral infections, apparent low rate of tumorigenesis, and unique ability to repair DNA. At the same time, bat longevity also permits the accumulation of age-associated systemic pathologies that can be examined in detail and manipulated, especially in captive animals. Research has uncovered additional and critical advantages of bats. In multiple ways, bats are better analogs to humans than are rodents. In this review, we highlight eight diverse areas of bat research with relevance to aging: genome sequencing, telomeres, and DNA repair; immunity and inflammation; hearing; menstruation and menopause; skeletal system and fragility; neurobiology and neurodegeneration; stem cells; and senescence and mortality. These examples demonstrate the broad relevance of the bat as an animal model and point to directions that are particularly important for human aging studies.

Signature of viral fossils: a comparative genomics approach to understand the diversity of endogenous retroviruses in bats.

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are traces of past viral infections commonly found in vertebrate genomes. Many ERVs are tightly regulated by the host genomes and co-opted for various functions within the hosts. Bats are the only true volant mammals, with the smallest mammalian genomes and a high fraction of ERVs within the genomes. They are important hosts for various zoonotic viral pathogens and can effectively modulate their immune response to tolerate viral infections. Integrations of retroviruses have been implicated as one of the mechanisms by which bats have co-evolved strategies to combat viral infections. In this study, we investigated the diversity of ERVs in over 40 publicly available bat genomes to understand the distribution and the evolution of ERVs within bats. We observed all classes of ERVs within bat genomes including even the complex lenti retroviruses. Alpha and spuma retroviruses which are generally considered rare in mammals, were common within bats. We observed a positive correlation between bat genome size and length of ERV elements. Interestingly, nearly 30 % of the ERVs within bats are intact suggesting a recent origin or co-option by the host genome. Future studies focusing on comparative genomic and experimental data will be critical to understand the role of these ERVs in host genome evolution.

Description of Ixodeslanigeri sp. nov., a new hard tick species (Acari, Ixodidae) collected from mouse-eared bats (Vespertilionidae, Myotis) in Vietnam.

Historically, for more than one and a half centuries, only one so-called "long-legged bat tick" species, i.e., Ixodesvespertilionis Koch was known to science. However, during the past decade, it was recognized on a molecular basis that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Of these, until recently, five have been morphologically described. In this study, Ixodes ticks were collected from two Myotis species in southeastern Asia, Vietnam. Based on the morphological and molecular characteristics of the female, nymph and larva, Ixodeslanigeri Hornok, sp. nov. is described here. The male is unknown. Like other members of the Ixodesariadnae complex, I.lanigeri Hornok apparently shows a preference for vesper bats as its typical hosts. In this context, host-association and geographical separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of I.lanigeri Hornok from its closest relative occurring on Murinahilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, because no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distribution between Vietnam and the main islands of Japan. On the other hand, supposing that (similarly to I.ariadnae) I.lanigeri Hornok probably occurs on other myotine bats and knowing that several Myotis species indigenous in Vietnam have a broad geographical range in southern and southeastern Asia, the new tick species most likely has a widespread distribution in this area.

The calls of Vietnamese bats: a major step toward the acoustic characterization of Asian bats.

Southeast Asia includes several global biodiversity hotspots and bats account for nearly one-third of mammal species currently known in the region. While acoustic methods have become widespread in bat research, basic information is often lacking on the echolocation calls produced by Asian bat species. Since such information can aid a wide variety of research and conservation initiatives, descriptions of the calls emitted by Asian bats are fundamental. The aim of our study was to provide a standardized analysis and description of the Vietnamese bat echolocation calls. We analyzed call recordings of 87 species arranged in eight families. This constitutes 74% of the echolocating bats presently known in Vietnam and includes the first call descriptions for five taxa. Our use of an open-source software and the deposition of recordings in the ChiroVox repository will facilitate comparative studies in Asia and the information we provide represents one of the most comprehensive bioacoustic databases for Asian bats to date.

Bat Ecology and Microbiome of the Gut: A Narrative Review of Associated Potentials in Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases.

In this review, we tentatively tried to connect the most recent findings on the bat microbiome and to investigate on their microbial communities, that may vary even in conspecific hosts and are influenced by host physiology, feeding behavior and diet, social interactions, but also by habitat diversity and climate change. From a conservation perspective, understanding the potentially negative and indirect effects of habitat destruction on animal microbiota can also play a crucial role in the conservation and management of the host itself. According to the One Health concept, which recognizes an interdependence between humans, animals, and the environment, bat microbiota represents an indicator of host and environmental health, besides allowing for evaluation of the risk of emerging infectious diseases. We noticed that a growing number of studies suggest that animal microbiota may respond in various ways to changes in land use, particularly when such changes lead to altered or deficient food resources. We have highlighted that the current literature is strongly focused on the initial phase of investigating the microbial communities found in Chiroptera from various habitats. However, there are gaps in effectively assessing the impacts of pathogens and microbial communities in general in animal conservation, veterinary, and public health. A deeper understanding of bat microbiomes is paramount to the implementation of correct habitat and host management and to the development of effective surveillance protocols worldwide.

Individual variation in breeding phenology and postnatal development in northern bats (Eptesicus nilssonii).

Bats inhabiting northern latitudes are faced with short reproductive seasons during which they must produce and rear pups before fattening up in time to survive the winter hibernation. Therefore, the timing of parturition has considerable impacts on future fitness prospects for the mother and pup. However, little is known about individual variation in breeding phenology and its consequences for postnatal development within bat populations. Here, we studied the phenology of breeding in Eptesicus nilssonii across 7 years using data collected by day-to-day monitoring of a breeding colony in Norway (60.1° N) for which the identity and age of each mother (N = 8) and pup (N = 28) were known. Using mixed-effect models, we found that arrival at the colony was influenced by temperature conditions from mid-April to mid-May across all females, but that there were strong and consistent individual differences in arrival- and parturition time across years. Females generally arrived ~32.1 days before giving birth, but the gestation duration was reduced if females arrived late and prolonged if females left the colony when faced with cold weather conditions. Pups born later in the season were born smaller but had higher growth rates during the most rapid growth period (<10 days old). The within-individual effects suggest that the higher growth rates could be due to mothers compensating (e.g. through increased food intake) for late parturition rather than by improved food availability. Date of parturition did not influence adult body size in pups. Pups became volant at the earliest only 13.1 days after birth and approached adult flight patterns during their first flight week. Our results suggest that E. nilssonii is highly adapted to a short breeding season by producing large, fast developing and early volant pups, despite the environmental pressures bats face at northern latitudes.

Prenatal growth patterns of the upper jaw complex with implications for laryngeal echolocation in bats.

Craniofacial morphology is extremely diversified within bat phylogeny, however growth and development of the palate in bats remains unstudied. The formation of both midline and bilateral orofacial clefts in laryngeally echolocating bats, morphologically similar to the syndromic and non-syndromic cleft palate in humans, are not well understood. Developmental series of prenatal samples (n = 128) and adults (n = 10) of eight bat species (two pteropodids, four rhinolophoids, and two yangochiropterans), and two non-bat mammals (Mus musculus and Erinaceus amurensis), were CT-scanned and cranial bones forming the upper jaw complex were three-dimensionally visualised to assess whether differences in palate development can be observed across bat phylogeny. Volumetric data of bones composing the upper jaw complex were measured to quantify palate growth. The premaxilla is relatively reduced in bats compared to other mammals and its shape is heterogeneous depending on the presence and type of orofacial cleft across bat phylogeny. The palatine process of premaxillary bones is lacking in pteropodids and yangochiropterans, whereas the premaxilla is a mobile structure which is only in contact caudally with the maxilla by a fibrous membrane or suture in rhinolophoids. In all bats, maxillary bones progressively extend caudally and palatine bones, in some cases split into three branches, extend caudally so that they are completely fused to another one medially prior to the birth. Ossification of the vomer and fusion of the maxillary and palatine bones occur earlier in rhinolophoids than in pteropodids and yangochiropterans. The vomer ossifies bilaterally from two different ossification centres in yangochiropterans, which is uncommon in other bats and non-bat mammals. Analysis of ontogenetic allometric trajectories of the upper jaw complex revealed faster development of maxillary, vomer, and palatine bones in yangochiropterans compared to other bats, especially rhinolophoids. Ancestral state reconstruction revealed that yangochiropterans have a higher magnitude of change in ossification rate compared to other bats and E. amurensis a lower magnitude compared to M. musculus and bats. This study provides new evidence of heterochronic shifts in craniofacial development and growth across bat phylogeny that can improve understanding of the developmental differences characterising nasal and oral emission strategies.

Optimally warm roost temperatures during lactation do not improve body condition in a long-lived bat.

Lactation is the most energetically demanding time in the life of female mammals. To maximize lifetime reproductive success, females of long-lived species, such as bats, face a trade-off between investing in current and future reproduction. However, it is unclear whether global warming could influence this trade-off through shifts in the energy budget: warmer temperatures may reduce thermoregulatory costs, leaving mothers with more energy available for maternal care or for improving their own body condition (BC), which may increase survival and ensure future reproduction. Here, we investigated whether lactating Bechstein's bats (Myotis bechsteinii) allocate the energy saved in optimally warm roosts into their own BC. We analysed a 14-year dataset on the individual BC of 237 females marked with radio-frequency identification tags from four wild maternity colonies. In two of the colonies, the temperature in the roosts, in which the females raised their offspring, was artificially kept in the bats' thermoneutral zone to reduce their thermoregulation costs. We found that BC shortly after the lactation period did not differ between mothers from heated and non-heated colonies. Our results suggest that mothers do not invest the energy saved in warmer roosts in their own BC, consistent with an increased investment in maternal care.

Thermomechanical properties of bat and human red blood cells-Implications for hibernation.

Hibernation is a widespread and highly efficient mechanism to save energy in mammals. However, one major challenge of hibernation is maintaining blood circulation at low body temperatures, which strongly depends on the viscoelastic properties of red blood cells (RBCs). Here, we examined at physiologically relevant timescales the thermomechanical properties of hundreds of thousands of individual RBCs from the hibernating common noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula), the nonhibernating Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus), and humans (Homo sapiens). We exposed RBCs to temperatures encountered during normothermia and hibernation and found a significant increase in elasticity and viscosity with decreasing temperatures. Our data demonstrate that temperature adjustment of RBCs is mainly driven by membrane properties and not the cytosol while viscous dissipation in the membrane of both bat species exceeds the one in humans by a factor of 15. Finally, our results show that RBCs from both bat species reveal a transition to a more viscous-like state when temperature decreases. This process on a minute timescale has an effect size that is comparable with fluctuations in RBC viscoelasticity over the course of the year, implying that environmental factors, such as diets, have a lower impact on the capability of RBCs to respond to different temperatures than general physical properties of the cell membrane. In summary, our findings suggest membrane viscoelasticity as a promising target for identifying mechanisms that could be manipulated to ensure blood circulation at low body temperatures in humans, which may be one first step toward safe synthetic torpor in medicine and space flight.

Vulnerability of Southern Hemisphere bats to white-nose syndrome based on global analysis of fungal host specificity and cave temperatures.

White-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease affecting hibernating bats, is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Since the initial introduction of Pd from Eurasia to the United States in 2006, WNS has killed millions of bats throughout the temperate parts of North America. There is concern that if Pd is accidentally introduced to the Southern Hemisphere, WNS could pose similar threats to the bat fauna of the Southern Hemisphere's more temperate regions. Efforts are required to better understand the vulnerability of bats globally to WNS. We examined phylogenetic distances among cave roosting bat species globally to estimate the probability of infection by Pd. We predicted cave thermal suitability for Pd for 441 cave-roosting bat species across the globe via spatial analysis. We used host specificity models based on 65 species tested for Pd to determine phylogenetic specificity of Pd. Phylogenetic distance was not an important predictor of Pd infection, confirming that Pd has low host specificity. We found extensive areas (i.e., South America, Africa, and Australia) in the Southern Hemisphere with caves that were suitable for cave-roosting bat species and for Pd growth. Hence, if Pd spreads to the Southern Hemisphere, the risk of exposure is widespread for cave-roosting bats, and infection is possible regardless of relatedness to infected species in the Northern Hemisphere. Predicting the consequences of infection remains difficult due to lack of species-specific information about bat winter biology. Nevertheless, WNS is an important threat to naive Southern Hemisphere bat populations. Hence, biosecurity measures and planning of management responses that can help prevent or minimize a potential WNS outbreak in the Southern Hemisphere are urgently needed.

Vulnerabilidad de los murciélagos del hemisferio sur ante el síndrome de nariz blanca con base en el análisis mundial de especificidad del hospedero fúngico y las temperaturas de las cuevas Resumen El síndrome de nariz blanca (SNB), una enfermedad que afecta a los murciélagos en hibernación es causado por el hongo patógeno Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Desde la introducción inicial del Pd desde Eurasia a Estados Unidos en 2006, el SNB ha matado a millones de murciélagos en las zonas templadas de Norteamérica. Existe la preocupación de que, si el Pd se introduce por accidente en el hemisferio sur, el SNB podría amenazar de forma similar a los murciélagos en las regiones más templadas de este hemisferio. Se requieren esfuerzos para comprender mejor la vulnerabilidad de los murciélagos ante el SNB a nivel mundial. Analizamos las distancias filogenéticas entre las especies de murciélagos de cuevas de todo el mundo para estimar la probabilidad de infección por Pd. Mediante un análisis espacial, predijimos la idoneidad térmica de las cuevas para el Pd en 441 especies de murciélagos de todo el mundo. Usamos modelos de especificidad de hospedero basados en 65 especies analizadas para determinar la especificidad filogenética de Pd. La distancia filogenética no fue un factor predictivo importante de la infección por Pd, lo que confirma que la especificidad de hospedero de Pd es baja. En el hemisferio sur encontramos amplias zonas (América del Sur, África y Australia) con cuevas adecuadas para especies de murciélagos que se refugian en cuevas y para el crecimiento de Pd. Por lo tanto, si Pd se propaga en el hemisferio sur, el riesgo de exposición es generalizado para los murciélagos que pernoctan en cuevas, y la infección es posible independientemente del parentesco con especies infectadas en el hemisferio norte. Sigue siendo difícil predecir las consecuencias de la infección debido a la falta de información específica sobre la biología invernal de los murciélagos. No obstante, el SNB es una amenaza importante para las poblaciones de murciélagos del hemisferio sur que no están preparadas para enfrentarla. Por ello se necesiten medidas urgentes de bioseguridad y planificación de respuestas de gestión que puedan ayudar a prevenir o minimizar un posible brote del SNB en el hemisferio sur.

The state of the bats in North America.

The world's rich diversity of bats supports healthy ecosystems and important ecosystem services. Maintaining healthy biological systems requires prompt identification of threats to biodiversity and immediate action to protect species, which for wide-ranging bat species that span geopolitical boundaries warrants international coordination. Anthropogenic forces drive the threats to bats throughout North America and the world. We conducted an international expert elicitation to assess the status of 153 bat species in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. We used expert assessment to determine the conservation status, highest impact threats, and recent population trends for these species. We found that 53% of North American bat species have moderate to very high risk of extinction in the next 15 years. The highest impact threats varied with species and country, and four IUCN threat categories had the greatest overall impacts: Climate Change, Problematic Species (including disease), Agriculture, and Energy Production. Experts estimated that 90% of species assessed had decreasing population trends over the past 15 years, demonstrating the need for conservation action. Although the state of North American bats is concerning, we identify threats that can be addressed through internationally collaborative, proactive, and protective actions to support the recovery and resilience of North American bat species.

Insectivorous bat activity dataset across different land-use types in the Islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, Central West Africa.

Background: São Tomé and Príncipe oceanic islands, in Central West Africa, are characterised by exceptional levels of endemism. Since human colonisation in the mid-15th century, São Tomé and Príncipe have lost 74% and 67% of their native habitat, respectively. Today, these islands are mainly covered by remaining old-growth forests, secondary regrowth forests, shaded plantations (mostly of cocoa), oil palm plantations (in the case of São Tomé), small-scale agricultural areas and urban areas. Yet, little is known about how species on these islands are coping with land-use changes. Island ecosystems are particularly important for bats, with about 25% of the world's bat species being entirely restricted to island systems. São Tomé and Príncipe Islands comprise six and four native insectivorous bats, respectively. Two species, Chaerephontomensis and Macronycteristhomensis, are island-endemics in São Tomé; Pseudoromiciaprincipis is an island-endemic in Príncipe; and Miniopterusnewtoni is endemic from both São Tomé and Príncipe. Here, we present a dataset comprising a comprehensive compilation of occurrence records derived from acoustic sampling of insectivorous bats across the predominant land-use types of both the São Tomé and Príncipe Islands. In each sampling site, standardised surveys consisted of deploying one Audio Moth device that recorded for 1 minute every 5 minutes over a 48-hour period. We identified a total of 19,437 bat-passes across the 115 sites surveyed in São Tomé Island and 17,837 bat-passes across the 50 sites surveyed in Príncipe Island. New information: Based on a sampling effort of 1,584 hours of recordings manually processed to identify all the contained bat passes, this dataset, publicly available on GBIF, provides comprehensive information on the activity of insectivorous bats across two endemic-rich oceanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea. For each bat pass identified, we report the identified species, geographic coordinates, land-use type, altitude, date and time. This is the first public dataset providing detailed information on species-level habitat use for insectivorous bats on oceanic islands in Africa.

Understanding the role of bats as fungal vectors in the environment.

Bats (Chiroptera), the second largest group of mammals, are known for their unique immune system and their ability to act as vectors for various zoonoses. Bats also act as important carriers of fungi, which include plant, animal, and human pathogens. Their roosting areas, foraging behaviors, and even migration routes make bats ideal vectors for fungi. We isolated 75 culturable fungal species from bats in Yunnan Province, China, with 36 species representing known pathogens of plants, animals, and humans, while 39 species are non-pathogenic fungi. Among these species, 77% (58 species) belonged to Ascomycota, 9% (seven species) belonged to Basidiomycota, and 13% (10 species) belonged to Mucoromycota. Even though several taxonomic studies on fungi associated with bats have been published, studies exploring the role of bats as fungal vectors are lacking. This study discusses the fungi host-specific traits and pathogenicity and the impact and ecological significance of bats as fungal vectors.

Bat consumption by holostean fishes in the Eocene Lake Messel: insights into the trophic adaptability of extinct gars and bowfins.

Direct evidence of trophic interactions between extinct species is rarely available in the fossil record. Here, we describe fish-mammal associations from the middle Eocene of Messel (Germany), consisting of three specimens of holosteans (one Atractosteus messelensis (Lepisosteidae) and two Cyclurus kehreri (Amiidae)) each preserved with a bat specimen (Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon) lying in close contact with its jaws. This suggests that these fishes probably died after failed swallowing attempts, with the bat wing membrane entangled in their jaws resulting in a fatal handicap. Based on data from modern gars and bowfins, A. messelensis and C. kehreri may have opportunistically attacked drowning and dying individuals or scavenged on floating/sinking carcasses. This hypothesis is also supported by the unusually high number of bat specimens preserved in the deposits of the Eocene Lake Messel, suggesting that this group of small mammals may have represented a substantial food source for generalist feeders. This is the earliest case of chiropterophagy and the first known evidence of bat consumption by lepisosteid and amiid fishes, emphasizing the high trophic variability and adaptability of these groups throughout their evolutionary histories. The newly described associations provide important information for reconstructing the Eocene Lake Messel palaeoecosystem and its trophic web.

The genome sequence of the particolored bat, Vespertilio murinus Linnaeus, 1758.

We present a genome assembly from an individual male Vespertilio murinus (the particolored bat; Chordata; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Vespertilionidae). The genome sequence is 1,925.6 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 20 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the X and Y sex chromosomes. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 16.96 kilobases in length.

Microclimatic drivers of winter bat activity in coast redwood forests.

Bats are among the least well-known mammals, particularly in terms of their behavior and activity patterns during the winter. Here, we use passive acoustic monitoring to overcome some of the challenges inherent in surveying cryptic forest bats during the wet season to quantify overwintering behavior for 11 species in California coast redwood forests under varying microclimates. Because different species are active at different forest heights, we also examined the effect of acoustic detector placement (treetop or ground level). Generalized linear mixed models were used to relate acoustic detection probability for 8 species to daytime and nighttime temperature, relative humidity, water vapor pressure, and detector placement. The results indicate that daytime maximum temperature best explained variation in nightly probability of detection, and temperature threshold at which bats were predicted to be detected varied considerably across species. By using more precise species detection methods, we were able to resolve significant differences in activity patterns between Myotis yumanensis and M. californicus, 2 species with similar acoustic signatures that are often lumped together. Myotis californicus was predicted to have a 50% probability of detection at maximum daytime temperature as low as 12.5 °C, whereas M. yumanensis was not predicted to have 50% detection probability until maximum daytime temperature was at least 22 °C, suggesting that M. californicus spends less time in torpor. Also, monitoring at the top of the canopy revealed 4 migratory species to be present in the ecosystem on significantly more monitoring nights than could be observed using conventional ground-based monitoring methods. Improving winter bat survey methods provides evidence that diverse bat species are more active in redwood forests during the winter than previously documented. This finding suggests that coastal forests could provide important winter bat habitat for both resident and migratory species.

Polychromophilus (Haemosporida: Plasmodiidae): A review of association with bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) and the first record in the Neotropical bat, Myotis albescens (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) from Colombia.

Some species within the family Plasmodiidae (Haemosporida) have been extensively studied due to their implications for human health. However, for other haemosporidians that infect wild animals the knowledge is limited. Species within the genus Polychromophilus have thus far been documented exclusively as hemoparasites of bats. Records of Polychromophilus are primarily from Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with limited information available for the Americas. Here, we assessed the state of knowledge on Polychromophilus species infecting bats worldwide and searched for the presence of Polychromophilus in blood samples of neotropical bats from Colombia. We found a total of 65 records of Polychromophilus in 46 bat species belonging to the families Emballonuridae, Hipposideridae, Miniopteridae, Rhinolophidae, Rhinonycteridae, and Vespertilionidae worldwide, except for Antarctica. In the Americas, records of the genus Polychromophilus are exclusively from Vespertilionidae bats in Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Panama. The morphological and molecular analyses of blood from 125 bats, belonging to 39 species and captured in seven localities within the departments of Arauca and Caldas (Colombia), confirmed the presence of Polychromophilus deanei in a silver-tipped myotis, Myotis albescens (Vespertilionidae). This finding represents the first morphological and molecular confirmation of P. deanei in the Americas. Additionally, it expands the knowledge on the diversity and distribution of Polychromophilus in Neotropical bats.

Bartonella spp. in bats from the Brazilian Amazon Forest.

Despite the great diversity of bats (64 species) in the State of Acre, northwestern Brazil, there are no studies on occurrence and diversity of Bartonella spp. in bats in this region. The present study investigated the occurrence and molecular identity of Bartonella spp. in spleen samples (n = 271) from bats of 30 different species from this region, within the Amazon biome. Twenty-one out of 208 (10.1%) samples positive in the PCR for the mammalian gapdh endogenous genes were positive in the qPCR for Bartonella spp. based on the nuoG gene. The two gltA Bartonella genotypes detected grouped with those previously identified in bats from other locations, expanding the diversity of genotypes associated with bats. This study provided the first molecular evidence of the presence of Bartonella spp. in bats in the state of Acre and in bats of the species Lophostoma silvicolum, Vampyressa thyone, Tonatia saurophila and Phyllostomus elongatus.