Leishmania species infection of bats: A systematic review.

A wide variety of mammals, including domestic and wild species, have been considered potential hosts and reservoirs for Leishmania. Bats have longevity, dispersal capacity, and adaptability to synotropic environments, characteristics that may favor their role in maintaining the life cycle of parasites. Therefore, the objective of this study was to carry out a worldwide systematic review of the occurrence of Leishmania species in bats, as well as to identify associations between eating habits and the type of sample collected with the occurrence of the infection. Data were obtained from a bibliographic search for studies that used molecular methods to identify parasites, employing the keywords "bats" AND "Leishmania" and their synonyms. We found 68 original studies, of which 20 were included in this review. Most studies were conducted in Brazil (60 %) and only 10 % were conducted in Old World countries. In all, 48 bat species were recorded that hosted seven Leishmania species, resulting in 62 different host-parasite interactions, and the Leishmania infantum interaction with bat species presented higher frequency. There was no significant difference between Leishmania species richness, infection percentage, and type of sample analyzed, but in general, it is observed that the use of different biological samples seems to expand the possibility of parasite detection. The patterns observed here indicate that bats can become infected with a wide variety of Leishmania species and likely play an important role in maintaining the parasite's life cycle. Thus, we suggest that studies aimed at understanding the transmission cycle of leishmaniasis include the investigation of bats as potential hosts or reservoirs of Leishmania.

Geographical Patterns in the Architecture of Neotropical Flower-visitor Networks of Hummingbirds and Insects.

Geographical variations in environmental factors can affect species diversity and consequently influence the structure of interspecific ecological interactions. Relationships between flowering plants and animal flower visitors are among the most important ecological interactions and can structure and maintain ecological diversity in different environments. Additionally, many animal and plant species participate in these interactions, which shape the specific characteristics of these communities, in terms of both the responses of the interacting species involved and environmental differences. Therefore, in the present study we investigated geographical and environmental effects on the architecture of Neotropical flower-visitor networks of vertebrates and invertebrates. To this end, we used data regarding interaction networks available in the literature and constructed binary interaction networks of plants and plant-visitors (hummingbirds and insects) and tested the effects of altitude, latitude, vegetation type and number of plant families on the structure of these networks. In total, we analyzed 55 networks of flower-visitor interactions with 746 species of flower-visiting animals and 1,185 species of plants, totaling 5,463 distinct plant-animal interactions. In general, the architecture of flower-visitor networks varied along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients, with more pronounced effects for flower-insect networks in which latitude influenced network size, modularity, and nestedness, and altitude influenced network size and connectance. Flower-hummingbird networks in open vegetation (grassland) were more modular than networks in other environments. The number of plant families positively influenced the size of insect and hummingbird networks, and positively affected connectance and nestedness and negatively affected modularity in the flower-insect networks. So, the patterns we found indicate that plant-visitor interactions in flower-insect and flower-hummingbird networks are differently affected by geographical and plant-related factors, possibly due to the differences in taxonomic and functional groups involved in these interactions.

Superhost Plants Alter the Structure of Plant-Galling Insect Networks in Neotropical Savannas.

Host plants may harbor a variable number of galling insect species, with some species being able to harbor a high diversity of these insects, being therefore called superhost plants. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the occurrence of superhost plant species of genus Qualea (Vochysiaceae) affects the structure of plant-galling insect ecological networks in Brazilian Cerrado. We sampled a total of 1882 plants grouped in 131 species and 43 families, of which 64 species and 31 families of host plants hosted 112 galling insect species. Our results showed that occurrence of superhosts of genus Qualea increased the linkage density of plant species, number of observed interactions, and the size of plant-galling insect networks and negatively affected the network connectance (but had no effect on the residual connectance). Although the occurrence of Qualea species did not affect the plant species richness, these superhosts increased the species richness and the number of interactions of galling insects. Our study represents a step forward in relation to previous studies that investigated the effects of plant diversity on the plant-insect networks, showing that few superhost plant species alter the structure of plant-herbivore networks, even without having a significant effect on plant diversity.

Parasite-host interactions of bat flies (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) in Brazilian tropical dry forests.

Studies on the parasitology of ectoparasitic bat flies are scarce, and they are needed to identify patterns in parasitism. Hence, in the present study, we assessed community composition, prevalence, average infestation intensity, and specificity in the fly-bat associations in Brazilian tropical dry forests. In order to do that, we used the parasitological indices known as prevalence and average infestation intensity, along with an index of host specificity. We collected 1098 bat flies of 38 species. Five of the associations found are new to Brazil, 9 are new to southeastern Brazil, and 10 are new to science. Average infestation intensity varied from 1 to 9 and prevalence 0 to 100 %. In terms of specificity, 76 % of the bat flies were associated to a single host (monoxenic). These results highlight the low capacity of bat flies to survive on a not usual host especially due to an immunological incompatibility between parasites and hosts and dispersal barriers.