Diversity and host assemblage of avian haemosporidians in different terrestrial ecoregions of Peru

Characterizing the diversity and structure of host–parasite communities is crucial to understandingtheir eco-evolutionary dynamics.Malaria and related haemosporidian parasites are responsible forfitness loss and mortality in bird species worldwide.However,despite exhibiting the greatest ornithologicalbiodiversity,avian haemosporidians from Neotropical regions are quite unexplored.Here,we analyze the genetic diversity of bird haemosporidian parasites(Plasmodium andHaemoproteus)in 1,336 individuals belonging to 206 bird species to explore for differences in diversityof parasite lineages and bird species across 5 well-differentiated Peruvian ecoregions.Wedetected 70 different haemosporidian lineages infecting 74 bird species.We showed that 25 out ofthe 70 haplotypes had not been previously recorded.Moreover,we also identified 81 new host–parasite interactions representing new host records for these haemosporidian parasites.Our outcomesrevealed that the effective diversity(as well as the richness,abundance,and Shannon–Weaver index)for both birds and parasite lineages was higher in Amazon basin ecoregions.Furthermore,we also showed that ecoregions with greater diversity of bird species also had highparasite richness,hence suggesting that host community is crucial in explaining parasite richness.Generalist parasites were found in ecoregions with lower bird diversity,implying that the abundanceand richness of hosts may shape the exploitation strategy followed by haemosporidian parasites.These outcomes reveal that Neotropical region is a major reservoir of unidentified haemosporidianlineages.Further studies analyzing host distribution and specificity of these parasites inthe tropics will provide important knowledge about phylogenetic relationships,phylogeography,and patterns of evolution and distribution of haemosporidian parasites.