Specificity of fleas associated with Opossums in a landscape gradient in the Paranaense Rainforest Ecoregion

URDAPILLETA, MARA; LAMATTINA, D.; BURGOS, E. F.; SALOMON, O. D.; LARESCHI, MARCELA

ZOOTAXA

MAGNOLIA PRESS

Lugar: Auckland; Año: 2023

1175-5326

The degree of host specificity of fleas varies from highly specific (monoxenous) to opportunistic (polyxenous). Specificparasite-host associations can be observed among some flea families and tribes and mammalian orders, such as fleas ofthe tribe Tritopsyllini (Ctenophthalmidae, Doratopsyllinae) and opossums (Didelphimorphia). Specimens of the familyDidelphidae are common hosts of fleas of the genus Adoratopsylla (Ewing, 1925). In northern Argentina, Adoratopsylla(Adoratopsylla) antiquorum antiquorum (Rothschild, 1904) and Adoratopsylla (Tritopsylla) intermedia intermedia(Wagner, 1901) were recorded preferentially parasitizing opossums. In order to study parasite/host relationships, fleaswere collected from opossums captured in different environments in the Paranaense Rainforest ecoregion, northernMisiones province between 2016 and 2018. A total of 287 fleas were collected from 110 opossums. The fleas wereidentified as Pulicidae: Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835); Rhopalopsyllidae: Polygenis (Polygenis) rimatus(Jordan, 1932), Polygenis (Polygenis) roberti roberti (Rothschild, 1905); Ctenophthalmidae: A. (T.) i. intermedia, A.(A.) a. antiquorum, Adoratopsylla (Adoratopsylla) antiquorum ronnai (Guimarães, 1954). We report for the first timein Argentina a male specimen of A. (A.) a. ronnai collected on Didelphis albiventris (Lund, 1840) (Didelphidae), andmale and female specimens of P. (P.) r. roberti collected on Didelphis aurita (Wied-Neuwied, 1826), and we describe theexpansion of the geographic and host distribution of fleas to the Paranaense Rainforest ecoregion. Our records reinforcethe specific association between Adoratopsylla and Polygenis fleas and didelphid opossums, mentioned in the literaturefor the Atlantic Forest ecoregion in Brazil. Furthermore, we observed that flea communities in opossums change ina landscape gradient, with invasive cat fleas and euryxenous fleas common in anthropized areas, and endemic fleascommon in natural areas. Our results underline the importance for public health and veterinary medicine the analysis offlea circulation between wild and urban environments due to the risk of pathogen transmission