No abstract

Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the Pantanal wetland.

No abstract

Streblidae flies are specialised parasites of bat hosts, mainly phyllostomids. There is a high richness of streblids in the savannah-like Cerrado region; however, there is little quantitative data available in parasitological indices. Here, we describe the component community, prevalence and intensity of a streblid infestation on a phyllostomid bat assemblage in Serra da Bodoquena, a Cerrado region in Southwest Brazil. We conducted surveys by capturing and inspecting bat hosts during the seven-month period between October 2004-December 2005. All the ectoparasites found on the bats were collected in the field and then counted and identified in the laboratory. We captured 327 bats belonging to 13 species, of which eight species were parasitized by 17 species of streblids. Carollia perspicillata and Glossophaga soricina were infested with seven streblid species, whereas the other bat species were infested with four or fewer streblid species. Megistopoda proxima and Aspidoptera falcata flies were found on Sturnira lilium, and Trichobius joblingi was the most prevalent fly on C. perspicillata. Megistopoda aranea and Aspidoptera phyllostomatis were highly prevalent and had a high intensity of infestation on Artibeus planirostris. Overall comparisons of the available data suggest that the component communities of streblids vary more between the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest phytogeographical regions than between localities within the same phytogeographical region

As associações hospedeiros-parasitos e as taxas de infestação de dípteros ectoparasitos da família Streblidae foram estudadas em morcegos da família Phyllostomidae na Floresta Atlântica no extremo sul do Brasil. Para as espécies mais abundantes de filostomídeos, foi examinado se há diferenças nos valores de prevalência e intensidade média dos ectoparasitos nas diferentes estações do ano e conforme sexo e idade do hospedeiro. Em quatro espécies de filostomídeos (Anoura caudifera (E. Geoffroy, 1818), Artibeus fimbriatus Gray, 1838, Artibeus lituratus (Olfers, 1818) e Sturnira lilium E. Geoffroy, 1810) foram coletados 118 indivíduos de sete espécies de Streblidae (Anastrebla caudiferae Wenzel, 1976, Megistopoda aranea (Coquillett, 1899), Megistopoda proxima (Séguy, 1926), Metelasmus pseudopterus Coquillett, 1907, Paratrichobius longicrus (Miranda Ribeiro, 1907), Trichobius phyllostomae Kessel, 1925 e Trichobius tiptoni Wenzel, 1976). Para A. lituratus, A. fimbriatus e S. lilium, as taxas de infestação foram baixas e houve uma tendência à infestação ser maior no verão e outono, fato provavelmente relacionado à sazonalidade de temperatura na região, que afeta as taxas reprodutivas e a mortalidade dos ectoparasitos. A infestação por P. longicrus em A. lituratus não foi afetada pelo sexo e idade do hospedeiro. Para S. lilium, a infestação por M. proxima não foi afetada por sexo e idade do hospedeiro, com exceção da maior prevalência de ectoparasitos em indivíduos jovens. Os dados indicam que não existem diferenças comportamentais ligadas a sexo e idade do hospedeiro que favoreçam ou comprometam a infestação por Streblidae nestas espécies de morcegos filostomídeos.

ABSTRACT. Batfiics (Diptcra, Hippoboscoidca)

No abstract

In this work we record the highest number of bat flies species among those already performed in the Brazilian cerrado and discuss the associations and patterns of parasitism of these species and their hosts. A total of 1,390 ectoparasitic flies were collected, belonging to 24 species of Streblidae and one of Nycteribiidae, parasitizing 227 bats of 15 species. Among the species found, the presence of Trichobius sp. on Lonchophylla mordax and the first occurrence of Hershkovitzia sp. on Thyroptera devivoi are highlighted. Lophostoma species presented the highest proportion of individuals with infracommunities and the highest values of parasitological indexes. The high number of bat fly species and hosts, as well as the high values for rates of parasitism and infracommunities, suggests that this area of cerrado has good shelter conditions for these species. The abundance of species and high rates of parasitism detracts from the hypothesis that a higher mean intensity of ectoparasites results from lower competition among flies for hosts in areas with lower ectoparasite species richness. Biogeographical and historical factors of host populations, besides the number of host species and individuals sampled, may contribute to species number and intensity of parasitism.