Ectoparasitic fauna on the common vampire bat desmodus rotundus (Geoffroy, 1810) (chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from huarochiri, lima, and a checklist of ectoparasites in bats of Peru

The blood-sucking bat Desmodus rotundus (Geoffroy, 1810) is a widely distributed zoonotic vector. The purposes of this study were to assess its ectoparasitic fauna and to compile a checklist of the parasitic arthropods in bats from Peru. The bats were captured in the San Bartolomé district, Huarochirí Province, Lima, Peru. A checklist was compiled based on online databases. Twenty-seven bats were studied, of which 70.37% (n = 19) were infected with at least one species of ectoparasite, including the Diptera Strebla wiedemanni Kolenati, 1856, and Trichobius parasiticus Gervais, 1844, and the ixodid Ornithodoros peruvianus Kohls, Clifford & Jones, 1969. The ectoparasite with the highest abundance and prevalence was O. peruvianus. We report three species of lice on D. rotundus, which we consider as accidental parasites. According to our checklist, 104 species of ectoparasites have been reported from 75 species of bats in 19 regions of Peru, including Diptera, Hemiptera, Siphonaptera, Phthiraptera, Mesostigmata and Ixodida. Aspidoptera falcata Wenzel, 1976 and Megistopoda aranea (Coquillett, 1899) (Streblidae) are the ectoparasites with the highest number of registered hosts. Lophostoma silvicolum d’Orbigny, 1836; Phyllostomus elongatus (Geoffroy, 1810) and Phyllostomus hastatus (Pallas, 1767) are the hosts with the most records of ectoparasites in bats from Peru (s = 10). According to the level of specificity of the ectoparasites for their hosts, the monoxenous species (s = 47) predominate, followed by oligoxenous species (s = 21). The geographical regions with most host-parasite reports were Loreto and Madre de Dios. Further research is needed since there are no ectoparasite records for 60.3% of bat species in Peru.