Abstract
The conversion of natural areas into agricultural landscapes results in different mosaics of land use types, modifying biodiversity and consequently altering the patterns of ecological interactions, such as between frugivorous bats and ectoparasites. Our objectives were to investigate whether variations in the configuration and composition of human-disturbed landscapes interfere with the prevalence and average intensity of ectoparasite infestation in the frugivorous bats Artibeus lituratus (Olfers, 1818), Carollia perspicillata (Linnaeus, 1758), and Sturnira lilium (É Geoffroy, 1810), in a region of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We also evaluated whether there is a response in the parasite load associated with the ectoparasite group (mite or fly). We found six species of flies and three mites. The proportion of infested hosts was more affected by the landscape than the mean infestation values. Land cover diversity influenced seven of the interactions studied. Forest cover affected eight of the interactions and was associated with a reduction in the parasite load in seven of them. The increase in the proportion of edges per area of each fragment presented a different influence related to the host species. Variations in parasite load did not show any typical response related to the mite or fly group. Our study indicates that landscape configuration and composition interfere with bat-ectoparasite interactions, which may be related to interference in encounter rates between hosts (for mites and flies) and between hosts and their ectoparasites in roosts (for flies). The taxonomic identity of the interacting species suggests that the relationship with the landscape is context-dependent.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Cristina Vieira and all teams of Instituto Sul-mineiro de Estudos e Conservação da Natureza for the logistic support and facilities during the field work. We thank Érica Hasui for help with the landscape mapping approach and Gustavo Graciolli for confirming the identification of Streblidae. We thank Marco Antônio Manhães for lending us some laboratory materials. We also thank all local business companies and farm owners for permission to access the studied areas.
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This work was supported by the Rufford Foundation (24579–1), the Brazilian Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES – Finance Code 001 PhD scholarships), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq process 304907/2019–7).
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RMM, RSL, WD, and RG designed the study; RMM and LCS collected the field data; RMM, RSL, and MVP performed and interpreted the statistical analyses; LFOB carried out the entire process of identifying the mites; RMM, WD, RG, and LFOB wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and contributed to substantial improvements in the manuscript.
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Mello, R.M., Laurindo, R.S., Silva, L.C. et al. Configuration and composition of human-dominated tropical landscapes affect the prevalence and average intensity of mite and fly infestation in Phyllostomidae bats. Parasitol Res 122, 127–137 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07704-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07704-3