Abstract
Androlaelaps fahrenholzi is a common, cosmopolitan mite constituting a species complex. This mite is found in nests or on mammal hosts and occasionally on birds. The specific host association between A. fahrenholzi-like mites and Premnoplex brunnescens in Costa Rica is reported here. Adults (females and males), deutonymphs and protonymphs were found on 14 P. brunnescens examined (prevalence was 100 %) with mean abundance 42 (2–222). The nest environment plays an important role in the evolution of parasites and could explain the evolutionary path of Laelapinae towards parasitism. We hypothesize that the colonization of P. brunnescens took place in this context quite recently, from sympatrically living rodents. Morphology and ecology of A. fahrenholzi from P. brunnescens may constitute at least a new variation of A. fahrenholzi, and possibly a new species.
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Acknowledgments
Fieldwork for this study was permitted by the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones de Costa Rica (Resoluciones No. 136-2009-SINAC and No. 120-2010-SINAC). We would like to thank to Bernardo Calvo Rodriguez, Zuzana Literakova and Martina Literakova for their help in the field. We are especially grateful to Jorge Poveda Quiros (Sacramento, Costa Rica) for his hospitality and for giving us the opportunity to carry out our research on his private land. Funding was provided by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Grant No. IAA601690901). Miroslav Capek was also supported in part by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Grant No. LC06073). Laboratory work at CEPAVE was supported by a grant from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET, PIP0146) and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (11N618). We want to thank Luis Giambelluca (CEPAVE) for his help with photographs, and two anonymous reviewers for their commentaries which improve this article.
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Lareschi, M., Literak, I., Capek, M. et al. Specific association between the mites Androlaelaps fahrenholzi (Acari: Laelapidae) and birds Premnoplex brunnescens in Costa Rica: possible evidence of a recent host switch. Exp Appl Acarol 60, 281–287 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-012-9653-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-012-9653-7