Species richness of bat flies and their associations with host bats in a subtropical East Asian region.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding the interactions between bat flies and host bats offer us fundamental insights into the coevolutionary and ecological processes in host-parasite relationships. Here, we investigated the identities, host specificity, and patterns of host association of bat flies in a subtropical region in East Asia, which is an understudied region for bat fly research.

Methods

We used both morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding to identify the bat fly species found on 11 cavernicolous bat species from five bat families inhabiting Hong Kong. We first determined the phylogenetic relationships among bat fly species. Then, we elucidated the patterns of bat-bat fly associations and calculated the host specificity of each bat fly species. Furthermore, we assembled

SUBMITTER: Poon ESK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9881358 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature