![]() Most parasite species evolved into organisms highly specialized to their living environment (the hosts’ body) and they also show remarkable behavioral traits helping them to find, colonize and live in/on their host. We conclude that bat-specialist ticks show a wide range of adaptations to their hosts, with differences in specificity, seasonality of occurrence, the prevalence and intensity of infestation and all these contribute to a successful division of temporal niches of ticks sharing morphologically similar hosts occurring in geographical sympatry. vespertilionis) showed temporal differences in occurrence and activity, thus exploiting significantly different host communities while occurring in geographical sympatry. The two highly generalist, but morphologically similar tick species ( I. ![]() vespertilionis) likely caused by their host choice and their respective host-seeking behavior. We observed significant differences in host specificity and seasonality of abundance between the morphologically different bat specialist ticks ( I. On the basis of tick–host associations, we tested several hypotheses on host–parasite evolutionary adaptations regulating host specificity, seasonality and sympatric speciation. We collected 1803 ticks from 30 species of bats living in underground shelters (caves and mines) from Romania and Bulgaria. Here we report data on the host range of these ticks and the seasonality of tick infestation on wild caught bats in south-east Europe. vespertilionis) are specialized for bats. vespertilionis) and at least two soft tick species (Argasidae: Argas transgariepinus and A. In Europe, three hard tick species (Ixodidae: Ixodes ariadnae, I. Ticks are important ectoparasites of vertebrates, which (in addition to directly affecting their hosts) may transmit a number of pathogens. ![]() ![]() These strategies will necessarily influence their host specificity and seasonality. Parasites may actively seek for hosts and may use a number of adaptive strategies to promote their reproductive success and host colonization. ![]()
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