Notes on the natural history of Macrocheles (Acari: Gamasida: Macrochelidae) 
associated with 3-toed sloths Bradypus spp. (Edentata: Bradypodidae) in the 
Central Amazon

Adis, Joachim U.; Krantz, Gerald W.

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Notes on the natural history of Macrocheles (Acari: Gamasida: Macrochelidae) associated with 3-toed sloths Bradypus spp. (Edentata: Bradypodidae) in the Central Amazon

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Adis, Joachim U.
Working Group Tropical Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Limnology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Adis, J. U., & Krantz, G. W. (1985). Notes on the natural history of Macrocheles (Acari: Gamasida: Macrochelidae) associated with 3-toed sloths Bradypus spp. (Edentata: Bradypodidae) in the Central Amazon. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 214(3/4), 222-224.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-0BB2-6

Abstract

Females of Macrocheles inpae and. M. uroxys are phoretic on the scarab beetles Trichillium adisi and Uroxys besti. These beetles were frequently collected from Bradypus tridactylus in dry land forests near Manaus. Macrocheles lukoschusi lives on fecal pellets inside
the rectum of Bradypus spp.; it is a common associate of B. variegatus from inundation
forests along the lower Rio Solimões. The mites are periodically forced to leave their
habitat and to migrate to the exterior anal region, due to weekly defecation of the sloth.
Migrations are believed to be initiated when light penetrates into the rectum before defecation due to anal sphincter movements of the sloth. M. lukoschusi is positively phototactic at these times.