Assessing host specificity of obligate ectoparasites in the absence of dispersal barriers

Abstract

Host specificity is a characteristic property of parasite-host associations and often is high among those involving obligate or permanent parasites. While many parasites are highly host-specific under natural conditions, specificity may break down in the absence of dispersal barriers. We tested the host specificity of obligate and permanent blood-feeding bat parasites (Hemiptera: Polyctenidae) under experimental conditions where parasite dispersal barriers had been removed. Under these conditions, parasites not only readily accepted a secondary host species but also remained there when a primary host was immediately available. Experiments with bat bugs and observations of streblid bat flies suggest that specificity may at least temporarily break down when dispersal barriers are removed. To affect long-term coevolutionary patterns, such transfers would necessarily entail the establishment of viable parasite populations on secondary host species.