Andrianiaina Angelo F, Andry Santino, Kettenburg Gwenddolen, Ranaivoson Hafaliana Christian, Lacoste Vincent, Dussart Philippe, Heraud Jean-Michel, Laverty Theresa M, Guth Sarah, Young Katherine I, Andrianarimisa Aristide, Brook Cara E
Department of Zoology and Animal Biodiversity, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Department of Entomology, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jan 22:2025.01.20.633693. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.20.633693.
Bats are important reservoir hosts for a variety of microparasites, some of which are transmitted by ectoparasite vectors that include mites, fleas, lice, ticks, and bat flies (families Nycteribiidae and Streblidae). All of these ectoparasite taxa are known to parasitize two endemic fruit bats of Madagascar, and We aimed to describe the diversity of ectoparasite infestation for both bat species through morphological observation and DNA barcoding and elucidate ecological and climatic correlates of seasonal nycteribiid parasitism of these hosts.
Live and fruit bats were captured monthly in northern and central-eastern Madagascar from 2013-2020. Ectoparasites on all captured bats were counted and identified in the field, then collected into ethanol. Field identification of a subset of samples were confirmed via microscopy and DNA barcoding of the cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and 18S genes. The seasonal abundance of nycteribiid bat flies on both host bats was analyzed using generalized additive models, and the role of climate in driving this seasonality was assessed via cross-correlation analysis combined with generalized linear models. Phylogenetic trees were generated to compare COIand 18S sequences of Madagascar nycteribiid and streblid bat flies with available reference sequences from GenBank.
Ectoparasites corresponding to four broad taxa (mites, ticks, fleas, and bat flies) were recovered from 628 of 873 and 831 of 862 . were most commonly parasitized by nycteribiids and by nycteribiids or streblids. We observed significant seasonality in nycteribiid abundance on both bat hosts, which varied by bat sex and was positively correlated with lagged temperature, precipitation, and humidity variables. Barcoding sequences recovered for all three bat fly species grouped with previously reported sequences, confirming morphological species identification. Our study contributes the first DNA barcodes of any kind reported for and the first 18S barcodes for
This study explores the diversity and abundance of ectoparasite burdens in two Malagasy fruit bat species, highlighting the importance of seasonal ecology and the influence of climate variables on parasitism, which correlates with resource availability.
蝙蝠是多种微寄生虫的重要宿主，其中一些通过体外寄生虫传播，包括螨、跳蚤、虱子、蜱和蝙蝠蝇（蛛蝠科和蝠蝇科）。已知所有这些体外寄生虫类群都寄生于马达加斯加的两种特有果蝠。我们旨在通过形态学观察和DNA条形码技术描述两种蝙蝠的体外寄生虫感染多样性，并阐明这些宿主季节性蛛蝠寄生的生态和气候相关性。
2013年至2020年期间，每月在马达加斯加北部和中东部捕获活的果蝠。对所有捕获蝙蝠身上的体外寄生虫进行现场计数和鉴定，然后收集到乙醇中。通过显微镜检查以及细胞色素C氧化酶亚基1（COI）和18S基因的DNA条形码技术，对一部分样本进行现场鉴定确认。使用广义相加模型分析两种宿主蝙蝠身上蛛蝠的季节性丰度，并通过交叉相关分析结合广义线性模型评估气候在驱动这种季节性变化中的作用。生成系统发育树，将马达加斯加蛛蝠和蝠蝇的COI和18S序列与来自GenBank的可用参考序列进行比较。
从873只中的628只和862只中的831只身上发现了对应于四个大类群（螨、蜱、跳蚤和蝙蝠蝇）的体外寄生虫。最常被蛛蝠寄生，而被蛛蝠或蝠蝇寄生。我们观察到两种蝙蝠宿主身上蛛蝠的丰度都有显著的季节性变化，这种变化因蝙蝠性别而异，并且与滞后的温度、降水量和湿度变量呈正相关。为所有三种蝙蝠蝇物种回收的条形码序列与先前报道的序列归为一组，证实了形态学物种鉴定。我们的研究贡献了所报道的首个任何类型的DNA条形码，以及首个的18S条形码。
本研究探讨了两种马达加斯加果蝠体外寄生虫负担的多样性和丰度，强调了季节生态学的重要性以及气候变量对寄生现象的影响，而寄生现象与资源可用性相关。
