Abstract
Ectoparasitic organisms have specific traits biologically adapted to their natural hosts to acquire an environment and food necessary for their survival. It is disadvantageous for them to infect non-host animals. Previous studies have shown that a bat Miniopterus fuliginous is the only natural host for a bat fly Penicillidia jenynsii. Therefore it is possible that P. jenynsii has some mechanism to discern M. fuliginous from and/or avoid other bat species. However no research has been conducted to examine such a mechanism. In the present study, pieces of fur cut from M. fuliginous, M. macrodactylus, the Japanese large-footed bat, and R. ferrumequinum, a greater horseshoe bat, all of which inhabit caves and occasionally rest together in the same cave, were prepared, and behavior of P. jenynsii was examined. The results showed that P. jenynsii tried to burrow into the fur pieces of M. fuliginous much more eagerly than into those of the other bat species.
