Abstract
BackgroundMolecular studies have suggested that the true diversity of Leucocytozoon (Apicomplexa: Haemospororida) species well exceeds the approximately 35 currently described taxa. Further, the degree of host-specificity may vary substantially among lineages. Parasite distribution can be influenced by the ability of the parasite to infect a host, vector preferences for certain avian hosts, or other factors such as microhabitat requirements that increase the probability that vertebrate hosts and vectors are in frequent contact with each other. Whereas most studies of haemosporidians have focused on passerine hosts, sampling vectors in the same habitats may allow the detection of other lineages affecting other hosts.MethodsWe sampled abundant, ornithophilic black flies (Simuliidae) across a variety of sites and habitats in the Colorado Rocky Mountains throughout the summer of 2007. Black flies were screened with PCR using Leucocytozoon-specific primers that amplify a portion of the cytochrome b gene, and the sequences were compared to the haplotypes in the MalAvi database. Infections of Leucocytozoon from birds sampled in the same area were also included.ResultsWe recovered 33 unique haplotypes from the black flies in this study area, which represented a large phylogenetic diversity of Leucocytozoon parasites. However, there were no clear patterns of avian host species or geography for the distribution of Leucocytozoon haplotypes in the phylogeny.ConclusionsSampling host-seeking vectors is a useful way to obtain a wide variety of avian haemosporidian haplotypes from a given area and may prove useful for understanding the global patterns of host, parasite, and vector associations of these ubiquitous and diverse parasites.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-0952-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Molecular studies have suggested that the true diversity of Leucocytozoon (Apicomplexa: Haemospororida) species well exceeds the approximately 35 currently described taxa
Our hypotheses were that the flies would contain a wider variety of parasite lineages than would be obtained by sampling the avian community, and parasite distributions would be structured by avian host or habitat type
Parasite prevalence and blood meal analysis During the summer of 2007, we collected a total of 2921 black flies including 1929 ornithophilic species specimens belonging to six species/species complexes (Additional file 1)
Summary
Molecular studies have suggested that the true diversity of Leucocytozoon (Apicomplexa: Haemospororida) species well exceeds the approximately 35 currently described taxa. Members of the genus Leucocytozoon are globally distributed avian haemosporidian parasites [1, 2] These parasites are transmitted among avian hosts by black fly vectors (Diptera: Simuliidae). The objective of this study was to sample a set of hostseeking black flies across a variety of sites and habitats in an alpine ecosystem and to use molecular methods to assess the diversity of Leucocytozoon parasites in these vectors. Our hypotheses were that the flies would contain a wider variety of parasite lineages than would be obtained by sampling the avian community, and parasite distributions would be structured by avian host or habitat type
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