López-Orozco Natalia, Cañón-Franco William Alberto
Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Rev Bras Parasitol Vet. 2013 Apr-Jun;22(2):194-200. doi: 10.1590/S1984-29612013000200039.
Within the bird-plant-mite system, the relationship between hummingbirds, flowers, and mites remains poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the degree of association between nasal mites and eight species of Andean hummingbirds in Colombia (Amazilia saucerrottei, A. tzacatl, Chalybura buffonii, Chlorostilbon mellisugus, Florisuga mellivora, Glaucis hirsutus, Phaethornis guy and P. striigularis). Over a five-month period (trapping effort 360 hours/month), a total of 178 birds were captured, from which 81 mite specimens were collected and identified as belonging to three genera (Proctolaelaps, Rhinoseius and Tropicoseius) spanning eleven species. This is the first report of its kind from Colombia on the identification of the mite species P. rabulatus, R. luteyni, R. rafinskii, T. berryi, T. colwelli, T. erro and T. uniformis and the first record of P. guy as phoretic host for Proctolaelaps rabulatus. Morphological characteristics (length of the dorsal plate, width of the dorsal plate and setae z5 length) alone failed to distinguish between mite species. The ecologic impact of this relationship on flowers with respect to nectar and pollen availability and the effect of mites on pollination by hummingbirds needs to be determined.
在鸟类 - 植物 - 螨类系统中，蜂鸟、花朵和螨类之间的关系仍未得到充分理解。在本研究中，我们评估了哥伦比亚八种安第斯蜂鸟（索氏艳蜂鸟、扎卡特艳蜂鸟、布氏金喉蜂鸟、绿蜂鸟、吸蜜蜂鸟、毛腿蜂鸟、长尾隐蜂鸟和纹喉隐蜂鸟）与鼻螨之间的关联程度。在为期五个月的时间里（每月诱捕时长360小时），共捕获178只鸟，从中收集了81个螨类标本，并鉴定它们属于三个属（原厉螨属、鼻绥螨属和热带绥螨属），涵盖11个物种。这是哥伦比亚首次关于鉴定螨类物种拉氏原厉螨、卢氏鼻绥螨、拉氏鼻绥螨、贝氏热带绥螨、科氏热带绥螨、误认热带绥螨和一致热带绥螨的此类报告，也是首次记录到长尾隐蜂鸟作为拉氏原厉螨的携带宿主。仅靠形态特征（背板长度、背板宽度和刚毛z5长度）无法区分螨类物种。这种关系对花朵在花蜜和花粉可利用性方面的生态影响以及螨类对蜂鸟授粉的影响有待确定。
