After 53 years, a new record of Ornithomya ambigua (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) and other reports of bird louse flies from the state of Minas Gerais

Hippoboscidae is a family of hematophagous ectoparasitic flies of mammals and birds, commonly known as louse flies. In Brazil, 30 species have been previously recorded, of which three parasitize mammals and 27 parasitize birds. Few studies have documented the occurrence of these flies in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which currently counts 11 bird-parasitizing species. In this work, we report hippoboscid flies associated with avian hosts in Minas Gerais. Birds were captured using mist nets across five forest fragments in the Zona da Mata region during field campaigns conducted between 2013 and 2017. Avian hosts were examined for the presence of ectoparasites, and louse flies were collected using fine tweezers. Morphological photographs were taken, and morphometric measurements and a diagnostic assessment were performed for our sample of Ornithomya ambigua (Lutz, Neiva & Costa-Lima, 1915). In total, we examined 2,226 birds belonging to 133 species, of which 24 individuals were parasitized. We collected 30 louse flies belonging to five species within the subfamily Ornithomyinae. Our morphometric measurements of O. ambigua are in agreement with previous studies. Although these five louse fly species had already been recorded for Minas Gerais, six new host-parasite interactions were documented, including the first record of any hippoboscid in three bird species and two Passeriformes genera. Furthermore, we recorded O. ambigua after 95 years without records in Brazil and 53 years since its last record globally. Our results expand the knowledge on this poorly studied group of ectoparasites.

KEYWORDS:
Ectoparasite; host interaction; louse flies; Ornithomyinae; Zona da Mata