Bats and their Bat Flies: Community Composition and Host Specificity on a Pacific Island Archipelago

Coiba National Park, Panama's fourth-largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, harbors remarkable bat diversity with 39 species identified, despite limited study effort. This study reveals that the park's highly preserved forests support one of the highest bat species richness in Panama, with eight new species recorded. The research also documents 22 species of ectoparasitic bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae), all new records for the area, and notes a high host specificity of 98.2% among these parasites. Using mist nets and acoustic monitoring, the study identified 30 bat species from 904 captures and 751 recordings, with Artibeus jamaicensis and Carollia perspicillata being the most abundant, while Myotis nigricans, Saccopteryx leptura, and Molossus bondae were the most frequently recorded aerial insectivores. The findings suggest that Coiba's isolated yet well-preserved ecosystem plays a crucial role in maintaining high biodiversity.

Estrada-Villegas, S., Halczok, T. K., Tschapka, M., Page, R. A., Brändel, S. D., & Hiller, T. (2018). Bats and their Bat Flies: Community Composition and Host Specificity on a Pacific Island Archipelago. Acta Chiropterologica, 20(1), 161–176. https://doi.org/10.3161/15081109acc2018.20.1.012