Association of bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) and bats: Richness and host specificity in Western Mexico.

As part of a widespread ecological study on the ectoparasites of bats in Western Mexico, we report new information on the specificity, and distribution of bat flies in a geographical transition zone between the neartic and neotropical zones. Fifteen (15) species of bats representing three families (Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, and Vespertilionidae) were collected in 10 locations throughout western Mexico. A total of 276 bat flies, representing 6 genera and 25 species, were identified four species of the bat flies are new records for the region indicating an expansion of the distribution for Trichobius corynorhini (Cockerll, 1910), T. hoffmannae (Guerrero & Morales-Malacara, 1996), T. intermedius (Peterson & Hürka, 1974) and Nycterophilia natali (Wenzel, 1966). These records update the species richness of streblids to 40 species in the state of Jalisco, representing 65.6% of the total number of 61 species of streblids recorded in Mexico. The interaction network showed a high degree of specialization of the bat flies towards their hosts (H2' = 0.92). Similarly, the specificity indices showed that there is a high ecological specificity (SI) with an average of 92%. of all the bat flies was associated with their primary hosts, while the average value of specificity of the phylogenetic trees (STD) of the six streblid species that presented more than one host was 1.7%, indicating a high specificity. The results of this study provide relevant information on bat-parasite associations and highlight the need for further research to obtain information on the geographic distribution of streblids and their hosts.

New species in the Basilia ferruginea group (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) from Mexico, with additional records of Basilia rondanii.

A new species of Basilia Miranda-Ribeiro, 1903 (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) belonging to the ferruginea group from Mexico is described and additional geographic records of Basilia rondanii Guimarães & D´Andretta, 1956 are presented. The type-specimens of the species were collected on an endemic Mexican vespertilionid bat, Myotis carteri La Val (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) in the State of Jalisco. Photographs in dorsal and ventral views and distribution maps of the new species and Basilia rondanii are presented.

The Sonozotz project: Assembling an echolocation call library for bats in a megadiverse country.

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.

Host ecology moderates the specialization of Neotropical bat-fly interaction networks.

The transmission of diseases through parasites is a key mechanism in the regulation of plant and animal populations in ecosystems. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the relative effect of the variables that can shape the specificity of host-parasite interactions. Previous studies have found that specialization of antagonistic interactions between fly ectoparasites and bats changes according to forest type, host richness, and roosting ecology of bats. In this study, we tested these hypotheses using data from 48 bat communities. In general, our results support previous findings that bat-fly interactions are specialized, resulting in lower niche overlap among bat flies species. In addition, we found that the specificity of bat-fly interactions is lower in tropical mountain forests and is positively related with the richness of bat host species of each study site. Finally, there was a higher bat flies niche overlap in smaller bat-fly interaction networks recorded in bat roosts in caves. We conclude that the roosting ecology of bats could be a key factor to understand the mechanisms related to the horizontal transmission of ectoparasitic flies among bats.

Can You Judge a Disease Host by the Company It Keeps? Predicting Disease Hosts and Their Relative Importance: A Case Study for Leishmaniasis.

Zoonoses are an important class of infectious diseases. An important element determining the impact of a zoonosis on domestic animal and human health is host range. Although for particular zoonoses some host species have been identified, until recently there have been no methods to predict those species most likely to be hosts or their relative importance. Complex inference networks infer potential biotic interactions between species using their degree of geographic co-occurrence, and have been posited as a potential tool for predicting disease hosts. Here we present the results of an interdisciplinary, empirical study to validate a model based on such networks for predicting hosts of Leishmania (L.) mexicana in Mexico. Using systematic sampling to validate the model predictions we identified 22 new species of host (34% of all species collected) with the probability to be a host strongly dependent on the probability of co-occurrence of vector and host. The results confirm that Leishmania (L.) mexicana is a generalist parasite but with a much wider host range than was previously thought. These results substantially change the geographic risk profile for Leishmaniasis and provide insights for the design of more efficient surveillance measures and a better understanding of potential dispersal scenarios.