Abstract
BackgroundParasites may actively seek for hosts and may use a number of adaptive strategies to promote their reproductive success and host colonization. These strategies will necessarily influence their host specificity and seasonality. Ticks are important ectoparasites of vertebrates, which (in addition to directly affecting their hosts) may transmit a number of pathogens. In Europe, three hard tick species (Ixodidae: Ixodes ariadnae, I. simplex and I. vespertilionis) and at least two soft tick species (Argasidae: Argas transgariepinus and A. vespertilionis) are specialized for bats.MethodsHere we report data on the host range of these ticks and the seasonality of tick infestation on wild caught bats in south-east Europe. We collected 1803 ticks from 30 species of bats living in underground shelters (caves and mines) from Romania and Bulgaria. On the basis of tick–host associations, we tested several hypotheses on host–parasite evolutionary adaptations regulating host specificity, seasonality and sympatric speciation.ResultsWe observed significant differences in host specificity and seasonality of abundance between the morphologically different bat specialist ticks (I. simplex and I. vespertilionis) likely caused by their host choice and their respective host-seeking behavior. The two highly generalist, but morphologically similar tick species (I. ariadnae and I. vespertilionis) showed temporal differences in occurrence and activity, thus exploiting significantly different host communities while occurring in geographical sympatry.ConclusionsWe conclude that bat-specialist ticks show a wide range of adaptations to their hosts, with differences in specificity, seasonality of occurrence, the prevalence and intensity of infestation and all these contribute to a successful division of temporal niches of ticks sharing morphologically similar hosts occurring in geographical sympatry.
Highlights
Parasites may actively seek for hosts and may use a number of adaptive strategies to promote their reproductive success and host colonization
As more surveys were completed in autumn, the number of bats captured is higher (2060 bats screened for ticks, 54.9% of all captured bats), with higher diversity of bats sampled (27 vs 21 species)
Ticks were found on 23 different bat species (Table 1), while the examined individuals of Barbastella barbastellus, Myotis aurascens, My. mystacinus, Nyctalus lasiopterus, N. leisleri and Pipistrellus kuhlii were free of ticks at the time of capture
Summary
Parasites may actively seek for hosts and may use a number of adaptive strategies to promote their reproductive success and host colonization. These strategies will necessarily influence their host specificity and seasonality. Molecular evidence demonstrated that bat ectoparasites may harbor numerous viruses [8], bacteria [9, 10] or protozoan parasites [11,12,13,14,15] of veterinary and medical importance These data justify extended research on bat tick ecology and their host–parasite relationships
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