Information about natural history of invasive species (such as parasitism) is a relevant issue in order to consider potential threats to native fauna. In this work we report two pterygosomatid mites for the first time in Colombia, Geckobia bataviensis and G. keegani, parasites of the invasive house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus. Although it has not been demonstrated that these mites may infest native gecko lizards, our study highlights the need to explore the prevalence of internal and external parasites in native and invasive geckos, to better evaluate the potential impact of invasive Hemidactylus lizards in Colombia.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Díaz, Jorge A.

Miranda, Robero J.

Paternina, Luis E.

Santana, Diego José

Torres, Richard A.

Cuadernos de Herpetología

English

El Servicio de Difusión de la Creación Intelectual

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79
Author for correspondence: diazpjorgea@gmail.com
Traveling with an invader: ectoparasitic mites of Hemidactylus 
frenatus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in Colombia
Jorge A. Díaz1,2, Richard A. Torres2,3, Luis E. Paternina4, Diego José Santana5, Roberto J. Miranda6
1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de 
Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, CEP 79070-900, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
2 Grupo de Investigación en Zoología y Ecología, Universidad de Sucre, Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia.
3 Laboratório de Aracnologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Fe-
deral de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, CEP 31270-901, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
4 Grupo de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad de Sucre, Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia.
5 Laboratorio de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo 
Grande, CEP 79070-900, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
6 Departamento de Investigación en Entomología Médica, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de 
la Salud, Panamá.
Cuad. herpetol. 34(1): 79-82 (2020)
Biological invasions associated to human activities 
are one of major threats to biodiversity worldwide, 
with impacts at the population, species and ecosys-
tems levels (Chornesky and Randall, 2003). Invasive 
animals can disperse their parasites and potentially 
transmit them, which may pose potential risks to 
native species (Prenter et al., 2004). Lizards, like 
other vertebrate groups are hosts for several internal 
and external parasites (e.g., Avila and Silva, 2010; 
Fajfer, 2012) that may affect behavior and fitness of 
individuals. Besides, parasites may present impor-
tant ecological implications at population level and 
interspecific relationships of their hosts (Prenter et 
al., 2004; Norval et al., 2014). 
Species of the gekkonid lizard genus Hemi-
dactylus Gray, 1825 are common hosts of external 
parasites such as mites of the family Pterygosoma-
tidae, which comprises 184 species and nine genera, 
mostly permanent ectoparasites of lizards (Fajfer, 
2018). Within Pterygosomatidae, the genus Geckobia 
Mégnin, 1878 exhibits the widest geographic distri-
bution and is composed by 73 species that parasitize 
lizards of different families, like Gekkonidae, Phy-
llodactylidae, Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae, 
Eublepharidae, and Liolaemidae (Fajfer, 2012; 2018). 
In Colombia, four species of non-native He-
midactylus occur: H. angulatus, H. mabouia, H. 
garnotii and H. frenatus (Vásquez-Restrepo and 
Lapwong, 2018), but aspects of their natural history 
and potential impacts on the native fauna have been 
poorly studied. Regarding H. frenatus (Fig. 1A) in 
this country, there is information on its geographic 
distribution, diet and reproduction (Caicedo-
Portilla and Dulcey-Cala, 2011; Diaz et al., 2017). 
However, there are no further data on its parasites. 
On this matter, we report herein for the first time 
two Pterygosomatidae mite species parasitizing 
Hemidactylus frenatus in an urban area of Colombia. 
We collected 30 specimens of H. frenatus (22 
adults and 8 juveniles) between 21:00 h and 23:00 h 
in buildings of the urban area of Sincelejo municipa-
lity (9°18’45” N; 75°24’40” W), department of Sucre, 
Northern Colombia. Lizards were euthanized by a 
thoracic injection of 2% lidocaine, vouchers were 
Recibida:  2 5  O c t u b r e  2 0 1 9
Revisada:  0 9  D i c i e m b r e  2 0 1 9
Aceptada:  1 1  D i c i e m b r e  2 0 1 9
Editor  Asociado:  C.  B or te iro
doi:  10.31017/CdH.2020.(2019-027)
ABSTRACT
Information about natural history of invasive species (such as parasitism) is a relevant issue in 
order to consider potential threats to native fauna. In this work we report two pterygosomatid 
mites for the first time in Colombia, Geckobia bataviensis and G. keegani, parasites of the invasive 
house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus. Although it has not been demonstrated that these mites may 
infest native gecko lizards, our study highlights the need to explore the prevalence of internal 
and external parasites in native and invasive geckos, to better evaluate the potential impact of 
invasive Hemidactylus lizards in Colombia.
Key Words: Biological invasions; Parasitism; Mites; Pterygosomatidae; Geckobia.
80
J. Díaz et al.  - Ectoparasitic mites of Hemidactylus frenatus
fixed in 10% formaldehyde and preserved in 70% 
ethanol (Pisani, 1973). 
We removed external mites (Fig. 1B) from 
the lizards using entomological tweezers under 
a stereomicroscope, and preserved them in 70% 
ethanol. Mites were clarified using lactophenol and 
permanent mounts were made on microscope slides 
using Hoyer medium (Faraji and Bakker, 2008). 
Mites were identified following the key of Bertrand 
et al. (2013) for genera and species of Pterygoso-
matidae. We also reviewed the original description 
of G. keegani by Lawrence (1953). Prevalence and 
mean intensity were determined according to Bush 
et al. (1997). Vouchers of H. frenatus are housed in 
the Colección Herpetológica (UIS-R) of the Museo 
de Historia Natural of the Universidad Industrial 
de Santander (Colombia) and vouchers of mites are 
housed in the Colección Zoológica “Dr. Eustorgio 
Méndez” (CoZEM), Departamento de Investigación 
en Entomología Médica, Instituto Conmemorativo 
Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud (Panamá).
Specimens of H. frenatus in the study area were 
infested by two mite species of the family Pterygoso-
matidae: Geckobia bataviensis Vitzthum, 1926 (Fig. 
1C) and Geckobia keegani Lawrence, 1953 (Fig. 1D). 
Both species of Geckobia are characterized by the 
presence of five setae on tibiae I-IV, but they differ 
because G. bataviensis has one setae in trochanter IV, 
which is absent in G. keegani (Bertrand et al. 2013). 
Mites were observed mainly on the dorsum 
of posterior legs and in the distal part of the fingers 
between claws (Fig. 1B). In this study, 80% (24) of 
the collected lizards were parasitized by at least one 
species of Geckobia. On the other hand, 37.5% (3) 
of juveniles and 95.45% (21) of adults were parasi-
tized by one or both mite species. From the total, 
58.3% (14) of lizards were parasitized by the two 
mite species at the same time. The prevalence of G. 
bataviensis (50%) was lower than that of G. keegani 
(76.6%) and the mean intensity was similar for both 
Figure 1. (A) Adult specimen of Hemidactylus frenatus from Sincelejo municipality; (B) Red mites on the dorsum of leg and fingers; (C) 
female of Geckobia bataviensis and  (D) female of G. keegani, parasites of H. frenatus in the study area (scale bar = 500µm).
81
Cuad. herpetol. 34 (1): 79-82 (2020)
mites (Table 1). 
This is the first record in Colombia of Geckobia 
bataviensis and G. keegani, parasitic mites usually 
dispersed by the Asian house gecko H. frenatus, 
as previously reported from other regions, both 
in native areas and in those where this gecko was 
introduced (Bochkov and Mironov, 2000; Frenkel 
and Vargas, 2005; Heath and Withaker, 2015). Gec-
kobia bataviensis is the most common scale mite 
on H. frenatus throughout its distribution, even in 
sites where this lizard is invasive and can be found 
along with other mite species but more often found 
with G. keegani, as we observed in the present study 
(Prawasti et al., 2013; Heath and Withaker, 2015). 
In the studied area, we observed H. frenatus 
inhabiting houses also with the native Yellow-headed 
Gecko Gonatodes albogularis (Duméril and Bibron, 
1836), which is more frequent in backyards and gar-
dens into crevices. It is known that invasive species 
can transmit their parasites to native relatives when 
colonizing new areas, affecting the local parasite dy-
namics and native host species (Prenter et al., 2004; 
Barnett et al., 2018). Hoskin (2011) considers that 
the ectoparasitic mites of H. frenatus could represent 
a potential threat for native lizard species; blood-
feeding mites are capable of transmit blood parasites, 
such as pentastomids of the genus Raillietiella, which 
could affect host reproduction, competitive abilities 
and survival (Barton, 2007; Hoskin, 2011). Never-
theless, there is still no evidence about transmission 
of pterygosomatid mites from invasive to native gec-
ko species or vice versa (Bertrand et al., 2008; Barnett 
et al., 2018). Pterygosomatid mites spend their entire 
life on geckos, and may be only transmitted during 
close and prolonged contact (e.g., during mating or 
fighting). Native and invasive gecko species in Co-
lombia may occupy different microhabitats, which 
may reduce the chance or eventually prevent mite 
transmission from the latter (Barnett et al., 2018). In 
the study area H. frenatus and G. albogularis occupy 
different microhabitats and are active at different 
times of the day (H. frenatus is mainly nocturnal 
and G. albogularis is diurnal). Additionally, we did 
not observed agonistic interactions between them. 
Thus, we hypothesize that these factors would not 
favor mite transmission from H. frenatus to native 
geckos (e.g., G. albogularis). However, this topic 
should be evaluated more rigorously. 
Hemidactylus frenatus is a common species 
in the Caribbean Region and inter-Andean valleys 
of Colombia, occurring generally between 0 and 
1600 m. elevation (Caicedo-Portilla and Dulcey-
Cala, 2011; this species was also registered in the 
Amazonia region of Colombia, in Leticia municipal-
ity  (Caicedo-Portilla, 2019). Therefore, is possible 
that parasitic mites reported also occur in other 
ecosystems across the distributional range of this 
invasive gecko in Colombia. Regarding mites, H. 
frenatus may host other parasites such as cestodes, 
nematodes, trematodes, coccidia, apicomplexans 
and pentastomids (Upton et al., 1994; Hanley et al., 
1995; Hanley et al., 1998), but the impact of this 
parasites on native species remains to be studied. Fi-
nally, we aim that future research would address the 
evaluation of the prevalence and effects of external 
parasites in both native and invasive geckos living 
in syntopy, to obtain valuable information on the 
potential impacts of invasive Hemidactylus species.
Acknowledgements
We thank to Cristian Castillo and Luis Montes for 
their logistic support and Juan Dávila for the photo 
of live Hemidactylus. RAT thanks Coordenação 
de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior 
(CAPES; scholarship No. 88882.381362/2019-01). 
DJS thanks Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento 
Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; research fellowship 
311492/2017-7). JAD also thanks CNPq (scholarship 
No. 133108/2018-0). Finally, we appreciate the edito-
rial board for their helpful comments that improved 
the manuscript.
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Traveling with an invader: ectoparasitic mites of Hemidactylus frenatus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in Colombia

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Traveling with an invader: ectoparasitic mites of Hemidactylus frenatus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in Colombia

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