Correlations of two species of gamasid mites (
Macronyssus pararadovskyi
and
M. radovskyi
) and their bat hosts
(
Tylonycteris pachypus
and
T. robustula
) were studied by field surveys and indoor behavioral experiments. The wild data
indicated that mite load was positively correlated with body condition index of female
T. pachypus hosts (Spearman: r
s=0.55,
P<0.01, n=24). Whereas, mite loads had no correlation with body condition indexes of male
T. pachypus and all
T. robustula
hosts (P>0.05). Indoor original host infection showed that mites preferred male
T. pachypus and
T. robustula hosts. The
infection percentages on male hosts were significantly higher than those on female hosts [
T. pachypus: male (58±12)%, female
(42±12)%, (t=−3.6, df=31, P<0.01);
T. robustula: male (63±11)%, female (37±11)%, (t=−6.1, df=26, P<0.001)]. Using
M.
pararadovskyi (original host
T. pachypus) to across infect
T. pachypus and
T. robustula, we found that mites significantly
preferred the original host (t=9.1, df=29, P<0.001). The infection percentages of
T. pachypus, and
T. robustula were (71±13)%
and (29±13)%, respectively. Our results indicated that mite loads of the two bat species were not correlated with body
condition indexes of hosts. However, these mites presented different host sexual preferences, and the mites of
T. pachypus
presented specific host species preferences.
