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.
Highlights
There is ample evidence of the ecological impact of recent climate change, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments (Walther et al 2002)
When parasites are considered in the climate change literature, most studies focus on virulent pathogens that could become dominant in a changing climate, raising human health concerns
Generalized Linear Models (GLM) were used to evaluate differences in the intensities of the total number of fleas related to host factors and temporal dynamics
Summary
There is ample evidence of the ecological impact of recent climate change, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments (Walther et al 2002). A changing climate alters the availability of parasite niche space, driving a combination of habitat loss and range shifts, and potentially decreasing population growth and reproductive rates, all of which may encourage primary extinctions (Cizauskas et al 2017). In this sense, the habitat of an ectoparasite should not be just a particular host, but a particular host in a particular habitat because of its sensitivity to factors of the off-host environment. These parameters determine the conditions of the burrow or the nest of the host (temperature, humidity, substrate, nest material) and affect flea assemblage (Krasnov 2008)
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