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24 July 2020 Does latitudinal migration represent an advantage in the decrease of ectoparasitic loads in Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (Chiroptera)?
Daniel Zamora-Mejías, Juan B. Morales-Malacara, Bernal Rodríguez-Herrera, Margarita Ojeda, Rodrigo A. Medellín
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Abstract

Latitudinal migration increases fitness of migrants by allowing them to exploit favorable conditions in nonadjacent geographic regions. Other consequences also may follow, such as interactions with parasites. Migrants may have lower parasite prevalence and abundance than resident individuals because of their ability to abandon infested areas or due to mortality of highly infested hosts. To further understand whether variation in ectoparasite loads is influenced by migration, we investigated whether prevalence and abundance of two species of obligate ectoparasites, the wing mite Periglischrus paracaligus (Mesostigmata: Spinturnicidae) and the bat fly Nycterophilia coxata (Diptera: Streblidae, Nycterophiliinae), of the lesser long-nosed bat, Leptonycteris yerbabuenae, varied between migratory and resident populations throughout their range in Mexico. We examined the presence or absence of migratory behavior, as well as sex and reproductive status of the host because ectoparasitism differentially affects the sexes. Our results showed that the prevalence of both ectoparasites did not vary between migrant and resident females or males, but abundance of the wing mite P. paracaligus was lower in migrant females compared with resident females, with an important influence from the reproductive status of the host. A partial negative relationship between ectoparasite loads and latitudinal migration therefore was demonstrated.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org.
Daniel Zamora-Mejías, Juan B. Morales-Malacara, Bernal Rodríguez-Herrera, Margarita Ojeda, and Rodrigo A. Medellín "Does latitudinal migration represent an advantage in the decrease of ectoparasitic loads in Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (Chiroptera)?," Journal of Mammalogy 101(4), 979-989, (24 July 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyaa075
Received: 23 November 2019; Accepted: 13 June 2020; Published: 24 July 2020
KEYWORDS
bat migration
ectoparasitism
host–parasite system
infestation
movement patterns
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