“Students of parasites of vertebrates in general have only a few options when it comes to collecting material. They must either go to the field themselves and collect the hosts, or depend on mammalogists, ornithologists, etc. to collect for them.” and “Of all the South American countries, Peru is the one that is least known relative to its vertebrate ectoparasites” --flea specialist Robert Lewis (Iowa State University).

“This is a critical geographic area for research with arthropods for two major reasons: 1) there are no significant collections from the tropical Andes, and 2) the fauna of potential vertebrate hosts is incredibly high in species richness and diversity.” --mite specialist Don Gettinger (Central Arkansas University)

New taxa and records should enable more detailed and accurate phylogenetic analyses and refined biogeographic reconstructions. Information of vertebrate hosts will also permit analyses of host selectivity, range limitation, and other coevolutionary features, such as comparative evolutionary rates. Besides ectoparasitic arthropods, we will also collect endoparasites and fungi encountered with collected vertebrates.

Expected Results and Significance

We expect that fieldwork supported by this proposal will provide modern museum specimens and tissue vouchers for roughly 130 species of mammals and 600 species of birds. Based on incidence elsewhere in South America, we would expect to document and record parasites from roughly two-thirds of these specimens and taxa. Because few studies of parasites have been mounted in the central Andes, and because this region is rich in both species and endemicity, some of the vertebrates and many of the parasite species and genera will be new to science.

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