McCracken GF, Wilkinson GS (2000) Bat mating systems. McCracken GF, Bradbury JW (1981) Social organization and kinship in the polygynous bat Phyllostomus hastatus. Marshall AG (1981) The ecology of ectoparasitic insects. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas, pp 135–142 In: Wilson DE, Gardner AL (eds) Proceedings of the fifth international bat research conference. Marshall AG (1980) The comparative ecology of insects ectoparasitic upon bats in West Malaysia. López-González C (1998) Systematics and zoogeography of the bats of Paraguay. Kuris AM, Goddard JHR, Torchin ME, Murphy N, Gurney R, Lafferty KD (2007) An experimental evaluation of host specificity: the role of encounter and compatibility filters for a rhizocephalan parasite of crabs. Johnson KP, Adams RJ, Clayton DA (2002) The phylogeny of the louse genus Brueelia does not reflect host phylogeny. Brigham Young Univ Sci Bull Biol Ser 20:1–91 Handley JCO (1976) Mammals of the Smithsonian Venezuelan Project. Hagan HR (1931) The embryogeny of the polyctenid, Hesperoctenes fumarius Westwood, with reference to viviparity in insects. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 195–218 In: Page RDM (ed) Tangled trees: phylogeny, cospeciation, and coevolution. Hafner MS, Demastes JW, Spradling TA, Reed DL (2003) Cophylogeny between pocket gophers and chewing lice. Descriptions, rabies infection, and ecology. Goodwin GG, Greenhall AM (1961) A review of the bats of Trinidad and Tobago. Gettinger D (1992) Host specificity of Laelaps (Acari: Laelapidae) in central Brazil. Microentomology 4:1–50įreeman PW (1981) A multivariate study of the family Molossidae (Mammalia, Chiroptera): morphology, ecology, evolution. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 100:761–764įerris GF, Usinger RL (1939) The family Polyctenidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 96:1169–1170Įsbérard CEL, Martins-Hatano F, Bittencourt EB, Bossi DEP, Fontes A, Lareschi M, Menezes V, Bergallo HG, Gettinger D (2005) A method for testing the host specificity of ectoparasites: give them the opportunity to choose. Int J Parasitol 37:871–876Įsbérard CEL (2001) Infestation of Rhynchopsyllus pulex (Siphonaptera: Tungidae) on Molossus molossus (Chiroptera) in Southeastern Brazil. J Parasitol 91:1015–1024ĭick CW, Patterson BD (2007) Against all odds: explaining high host specificity in dispersal-prone parasites.

J Med Entomol 43:433–436ĭick CW, Gettinger D (2005) A faunal survey of streblid flies (Diptera: Streblidae) associated with bats in Paraguay. Ecol Entomol 32:446–450ĭick CW, Dick SC (2006) Effects of prior infestation on host choice of bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae). Evolution 60:2158–2167ĭick CW (2007) High host specificity of obligate ectoparasites. Acta Zool Mex 78:119–169īush SE, Clayton DH (2006) The role of body size in host specificity: reciprocal transfer experiments with feather lice. Tequila is made from the agave plant, which is pollinated by bats.Autino AG, Claps GL, Barquez RM (1999) Insectos ectoparasitos de murcielagos de las Yungas de la Argentina. In the southwestern deserts of North America, bats are the key pollinators of saguaro and organ pipe cactus. Bats are important pollinators as they fly from plant to plant in search of food.

Other species of bats eat many different things, including fruit, nectar, and pollen. This action, as well as the chase, results in the erratic flight most people are familiar with when they observe bats feeding in the late evening or around lights at night. Although this may not sound like much, it adds up-the loss of the one million bats in the Northeast has probably resulted in between 6 metric tons of insects no longer being eaten each year by bats.īats locate each insect by echolocation, then they trap it with their wing or tail membranes and reach down to take the insect into their mouth. A single little brown bat, which has a body no bigger than an adult human’s thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams (the weight of about a grape or two) of insects each night. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects.

Bat bugs