Lim Zong Xian, Hitch Alan T, Lee Benjamin P Y-H, Low Dolyce H W, Neves Erica Sena, Borthwick Sophie A, Smith Gavin J D, Mendenhall Ian H
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2020 May 1;12:29-33. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2020.04.010. eCollection 2020 Aug.
Bat flies are highly-specialized, hematophagous arthropods that are globally ubiquitous. There is little published research on bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) in Singapore and understanding the diversity of nycteribiids, host association and infestation rates can provide insight into this host-ectoparasite relationship. Nycteribiids were collected from bats trapped in Singapore (2011-2016) and identified using morphological keys. Host-ectoparasite relationships were investigated with logistic regression and Bayesian poisson regression. Nycteribiids were found to be monoxenously associated with their host bat species and host age, sex, species, and BBCI appear to contribute to differences in prevalence and intensity. Differences in host specificity between bat fly species in Singapore and their conspecifics in less disturbed habitats with higher bat biodiversity, such as Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, suggest that the high host specificity in Singapore derives from the paucity of suitable hosts and abundance of single species roosts and not from their coevolved restrictions to them.
蝙蝠蝇是高度特化的吸血节肢动物，在全球范围内广泛存在。关于新加坡蝙蝠蝇（双翅目：蝠蝇科）的已发表研究很少，了解蝠蝇科的多样性、宿主关联和感染率可以深入了解这种宿主与体外寄生虫的关系。从2011年至2016年在新加坡捕获的蝙蝠身上采集了蝠蝇，并使用形态学鉴定方法进行了鉴定。通过逻辑回归和贝叶斯泊松回归研究了宿主与体外寄生虫的关系。发现蝠蝇与它们的宿主蝙蝠物种单宿主关联，宿主的年龄、性别、物种以及蝙蝠生物多样性指数似乎导致了感染率和感染强度的差异。与马来西亚、菲律宾和泰国等蝙蝠生物多样性较高、干扰较少的栖息地中的同属蝙蝠蝇相比，新加坡蝙蝠蝇物种的宿主特异性差异表明，新加坡蝙蝠蝇的高宿主特异性源于合适宿主的稀缺以及单一物种栖息地的丰富，而非共同进化对宿主的限制。
