Parasite and viral species richness of Southeast Asian bats: Fragmentation of area distribution matters

Gay, Noellie; Olival, Kevin J.; Bumrungsri, Sara; Siriaroonrat, Boripat; Bourgarel, Mathieu; Morand, Serge

Ectoparasite species richness was negatively correlated with body mass and positively, but not significantly, correlated with colony size of bat species. A negative correlation of ectoparasite species richness with bat body mass was unsuspected as it was found positively correlated in bats from South America (Bordes et al., 2008) . However, using multivariate analysis, body mass appeared to be negatively associated with colony size and roosting behavior (Fig. 2) and these two last factors could explain ectoparasite species richness. The statistical power of our comparative analysis was limited by the number of SEA bat species investigated for ectoparasites. Moreover, our results may suggest that social behavior should be defined in a more complex way in order to better understand factors affecting contact rates, transmission and diversity of parasites (Altizer et al., 2003) . Consistent with Bordes et al. (2008) , the distribution area did not seem to explain ectoparasite species richness in bats of Southeast Asia. It differs from other studies on PSR in terrestrial mammals (Krasnov et al., 2004; Lindenfors et al., 2007) , where it is assumed that widely distributed mammal species accumulate parasites as they increase their chances of contact with parasite species (Lindenfors et al., 2007) .