Lasiurus egregius (Peters, 1870) is an insectivorous bat species known from Central and South America. This species has few confirmed records throughout its distribution. Here we report the first record of L. egregius from the northern coast of Paraná state, southern Brazil. We captured a female individual of L. egregius using an ultrathin mist-net installed over a river knee, at Salto Morato Natural Reserve, municipality of Guaraqueçaba. This is the fourteenth locality with confirmed occurrence of L. egregius, being eight of them in Brazil. The knowledge on the bat fauna in Paraná has been increasing in recent decades, mainly due to the new studies in coast areas of this state. In addition to contributing to the knowledge of the bat fauna from Paraná, the new record of L. egregius reinforces the essential role of the Salto Morato Natural Reserve in conserving bats in the southern portion of the Atlantic Forest.
Ecological interactions between parasites and their hosts play a
fundamental role in evolutionary processes. Selection pressures are
exerted on parasites and their hosts, usually resulting in high levels
of specificity. Such is the case of ectoparasitic bat-flies, but how
large-scale spatial gradients affect the dynamics of their interactions
with their bat hosts is still unknown. In the present study, we
investigated interaction patterns between bats and their ectoparasitic
flies (Streblidae and Nycteribiidae), both presenting their peak of
diversity in the Neotropical region, along a latitudinal gradient. Using
network analyses and parasitic indices, grounded on the latitudinal
diversity gradient theory, we evaluated how spatial gradients affect
species interactions and parasitic indices at the macroscale level,
predicting that interaction networks should become richer in species,
leading to increases in network modularity, size, and specialization,
and to a decrease in nestedness and connectance. We conducted a
literature review, focusing on studies done in the Neotropical region,
and data of our own authorship. We obtained a richness of 97 species of
bats parasitized by 128 species of ectoparasitic flies, distributed into
57 interaction networks between latitudes 29ºS and 19ºN in the
Neotropic. Network metrics and parasitic indices varied along the
latitudinal gradient, with changes in richness of bats and their
ectoparasitic flies and in the structure of their interactions; network
specialization, modularity and connectance increase with latitude, while
network size decreases with latitude. Regions closer to the equator had
higher parasite loads. Our results show that interaction networks
metrics present a latitudinal gradient and that such interactions, when
observed at a local scale, hide variations that only become perceptible
at larger scales. In this way, ectoparasites such as bat flies are not
only influenced by the ecology and biology of their hosts, but by other
environmental factors acting directly on their distribution and
survival.
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