Abstract

There have only been a few studies concerning the ectoparasitic fauna of bats in Costa Rica, and for many years parasitologic studies of vampire bats have been almost non-existent.^6,7 A descriptive study was carried out to determine the ectoparasitic fauna of the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus from 12 locations in Costa Rica and 8 ecologic life zones between 0 to 866 meters above sea level.³ A total of 420 ectoparasites were collected, of which 82.12% corresponded to the diptera species Trichobius parasiticus and 4.05% to the diptera species Strebla wiedemannii; 13.57% of the ectoparasites were represented by the Macronyssid mite species Radfordiella desmodi, and the Spinturnicid mite species, Periglischrus herrerai, represented 0.24% (Table 1).

Table 1. Ectoparasites obtained from D. rotundus

^aProtonymph of P. desmodi.

The bats were caught monthly over the course of 1 year, using mist nets. In addition, the ecologic geography of the obtained ectoparasites was described using Geographical Information Systems. The study showed new geographic ranges for the Streblids batflies Trichobius parasiticus and Strebla wiedemannii.⁶ The presence of the Macronyssid mite Radfordiella desmodi and the Spinturnicid mite Periglischrus herrerai^4,8 was reported for the first time in Costa Rica.

The greatest percentage of bat infestation was done by T. parasiticus (91.04%) and R. desmodi (19.40%) with an infestation intensity of 5.65 and 4.38 respectively per bat (Tables 2 and 3).⁵ T. parasiticus seemed to be the most frequent species found infesting vampire bats in their natural habitat and at the same time it appeared to be the ectoparasite with the largest geographic and ecologic distribution in Costa Rica, being found in eleven of the twelve locations and in all the life zones studied in this research. Similar results have been reported in other Latin American countries.^1,2

Table 2. Infestation percentages of the species found

Table 3. Infestation intensity averages of the ectoparasites found

^aNot calculated as it was only one specimen

Maps were created to display the geographic location where each bat was caught. These maps showed that factors such as humidity, altitude, and average environmental temperature most likely influenced the ecologic distribution of the ectoparasitic species found.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the individuals that have provided samples and assistance with this research, including Mario Vargas, Manuel Zumbado, Marco Herrero, Virtor Hugo Sancho, and Luis Villalobos.

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