Effect of host and environment-related factors on fleas of the pichi, an armadillo from Argentina

Abstract

The pichi (Zaedyus pichiy; Cingulata: Chlamyphoridae) is an armadillo whose ectoparasite fauna is composed of ticks and fleas. Fleas were collected from 218 pichis in southern Mendoza, Argentina, in summer and winter of 2015 and 2016. Prevalences were analyzed and differences in the intensities of the total number of fleas related to host (age, sex, weight, size and physical condition) and environment-related (seasonality and year) factors evaluated. Phthiropsylla agenoris was the only species found. Intensities of fleas were higher in 2015, in juveniles, and in males. Individuals with poor physical condition were more parasitized than those with good or normal body condition. The main explanatory variable was sampling year. This factor was directly associated with precipitation. The extreme conditions and heavy rains during the El Niño event in 2015/2016 led to environmental changes that seem to have severely affected the life cycle of fleas.

Host specificity of flea parasites of mammals from the Andean Biogeographic Region

“…Stephanocircidae and Ctenophthalmidae, rarely include specialist species; 5-Fleas exploiting a large host range, and taxonomically unrelated hosts, conform to highest abundance populations than specialist fleas, because they use a greater and more variable number of resources; 6-Large bodied and long lived mammals promote specialization in fleas, likely because these hosts represent stable and foreseeable resources; 7-fleas with a wide geographic range have low host specificity (Ezquiaga et al, 2020;Krasnov et al, 2004Krasnov et al, , 2005Sanchez & Lareschi, 2019;Schramm & Lewis, 1988;van der Mescht et al, 2017).…”

“…Generalized trends about specialization of mammal fleas were reported by several authors and can be summarized as: 1‐ specialist fleas parasitize mammals that are specialized on habit or structures; 2‐ specialist fleas at generic level parasitize monotypic genera host or host without sympatric congeners; 3‐ the majority of flea groups specialist of insectivore and marsupial hosts are either species‐specific or genus‐specific. In contrast, rodents are parasitized by few groups of specialist fleas; 4‐ the most diverse families of Siphonaptera, such as Stephanocircidae and Ctenophthalmidae, rarely include specialist species; 5‐ Fleas exploiting a large host range, and taxonomically unrelated hosts, conform to highest abundance populations than specialist fleas, because they use a greater and more variable number of resources; 6‐ Large bodied and long lived mammals promote specialization in fleas, likely because these hosts represent stable and foreseeable resources; 7‐ fleas with a wide geographic range have low host specificity (Ezquiaga et al, 2020; Krasnov et al, 2004, 2005; Sanchez & Lareschi, 2019; Schramm & Lewis, 1988; van der Mescht et al, 2017).…”