Studies on the Ectoparasitic Flies of Genus Lipoptena in Central Italy: the Case of an Adventive Species, Lipoptena fortisetosa (Diptera: Hippoboscidae)

Ippoboscids are hematophagous flies that parasitize various species of domestic animals and wildlife. The representatives of the genus Lipoptena live on cervids (not in italic) although can accidentally infest other species. In the last decades the presence of ungulates in Italy has greatly increased causing several management problems and a consequent expansion of their parasites (reference). Even if the knowledge about these insects remains sparse, they are important under a sanitary point of view because can occasionally attack humans. These affect hosts causing sickness and stress and maintaining the transmission of pathogens and zoonoses (i.e. Borreliosis, Anaplasmosis, Tripanosomiasis) (these assertion, mainly that regarding zoonoses, have to be corroborated by references). Until 2017, Lipoptena cervi (Linnaeus, 1758) was considered the only species of the genus Lipoptena present in Italy, but during a research conducted in Tuscany, Lipoptena fortisetosa (Maa, 1965) has been recorded in the Country for the first time (Andreani et al., 2018). This species is native to Japan and its presence could be due to the introduction in Italy of Cervus nippon, the original host, recently identified in some Italian provinces-reference. Based on this new report, a survey was planned in order to determine the spread of L. fortisetosa and to increase the knowledge of this species that has never been studied in detail. In particular, the research focuses on the presence of the parasite in some areas of Central Italy, with the aim of evaluating its preference in parasitizing different ungulate species Specimens of Cervus elaphus, Capreolus capreolus and Dama dama hunted from 2017 to 2019 in some provinces of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna were analyzed and Hippoboscids were collected from their fur. The ungulates were homogeneously grouped into females and fawns, subadults males and adult males, in order to highlight any possible difference in the process of the host selection. The examined subjects hosted a great number of ectoparasites, most of which were L. fortisetosa. Each analyzed species carried parasites, but specimens of Red deer (C. elaphus) were particularly infested, suggesting the preference of the parasite for this ungulate. Results have been discussed on the basis of parasite distribution and its interaction with the hosts. The study shows that L. fortisetosa seems to strongly compete with the native L. cervi and it can be assumed that the species is currently spreading into a new area adapting to other hosts. This research has revealed the need to intensify parasite control by monitoring wildlife. The finding of a new parasite in Italy is particularly worthy of attention as L. fortisetosa is potentially harmful for human health, indeed, further investigations are ongoing to study this aspect.