Ecologia de Streblidae (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) em Artibeus Leach, 1821 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) em um remanescente de Mata Atlântica no Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The ectoparasites of bats have with their hosts a strong dependency relationship, especially bat flies. Little is known about this relationship when it comes to genus Artibeus bats. For this reason the general goal of this work was to evaluate the Streblidae ecology of the species of Artibeus in Tinguá region, municipality of Nova Iguaçu, State of Rio de Janeiro. The first chapter aimed to compare the parasitological indices Streblidae in Artibeus. For this we used the Streblidae that parasitized four species of Artibeus (Artibeus fimbriatus, A.lituratus, A. obscurus, A. planirostris) and they were deposited in wet collection. The specimens were collected in three areas of Tinguá, one area is within the Region Tinguá Biological Reserve (Rebio Tinguá) and two areas of its buffer zone. Thebat flies were identified by dichotomous keys available in the literature, using stereoscopic microscope. We found a total of seven species of bat flies in the four host species, A. lituratus the host with the greatest wealth of flies. No differences were found between the abundances of four species of bat flies in Artibeus. In A. fimbriatus were found the largest parasitological indices of Streblidae. Among the Paratrichobius longicrus was the most abundant with its higher prevalence and specificity on A. lituratus. Only two flies were found parasitizing all species of Artibeus, Aspidoptera falcata and Megistopoda aranea and some species of bat flies were found in combination in a single host. The most abundant was the association between A. phyllostomatis and M. phyllostomatis which was also recorded in all the species of Artibeus. The highest similarity of the average abundances of streblid of infracommunities was between A. obscurus and A. planirostris. It is noted that there is a pattern of parasitism for each host species and they preferably have streblideos parasitism, however in the absence of its preferred host other species can be used. The objective of the second chapter was to correlate the intensity of parasitism with body size and wing (body index), sex, age and reproductive condition and abiotic factors (minimum, average and maximum temperature and relative humidity) of sampling nights. For it analyzed the forearm size data, weight, sex and age of the host and the temperatures and average humidity of sampling nights. When analyzed the sex ratios of species of bat flies that parasitized Artibeus, one realizes greater abundance of females, less in A. lituratus. There was a preference of streblideos by Artibeus females. When correlated the intensity of Streblidae with tangible index species of A. lituratus and also with the abiotic factors, were not found relationship. This study may help to better understand the preferences of ectoparasites present in Artibeus