Louse fly (Diptera, Hippoboscidae) associations with raptors in southern Canada, with new North American and European records.

ABSTRACT: Louse flies (Diptera, Hippoboscidae) are ectoparasites often found on birds. As they spend most of their life on their host, they are not often collected or studied. Hence, little is known about their species richness and prevalence on raptors in Canada. In this study, louse flies were collected from 184 out of 1467 raptors examined during the 2020 fall migration in southern Ontario, Canada, giving an overall prevalence of 12.5%. In total, 256 louse fly specimens were collected (mean intensity = 1.41) representing four species (identified morphologically, with support of DNA barcoding): Icosta americana (91.9%), Ornithomya anchineuria (0.3%), O. avicularia (7.3%) and O. bequaerti (0.3%). Mite clusters were found on 42% of O. avicularia. This study also pr

SUBMITTER: Levesque-Beaudin V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8476438 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature