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A large number of arthropods are associated with sloths. These include biting and blood-sucking flies such as mosquitoes and sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks and mites. The sloth’s fur forms a micro-ecozone inhabited by green algae and hundred of insects. Sloths have a highly specific community of commensal beetles, mites and moths. Species of sloths recorded to host arthropods include:〔 * Pale-throated three-toed sloth ''Bradypus tridactylus'' * Brown three-toed sloth ''Bradypus variegatus'' * Linnaeus's two-toed sloth ''Choloepus didactylus'' The large variety of arthropods associated with sloths comprise two distinct feeding guilds – the haematophagous guild, represented by biting flies, mites, and ticks, and the coprophagous guild which comprises a unique assemblage of moths and beetles which utilize the sloth principally for phoresis and whose larval stages feed and develop in the dung of the host sloth. ==Haematophagous guild== Six species of ticks of the genus ''Amblyomma'' have been recorded from both two- and three-toed sloths in Central and South America. Of these, two species, ''Amblyomma geayi'' and ''Amblyomma varium'' are host-specific to sloths and the others are considered as accidental infestations.〔 Adult males of ''Amblyomma geayi'' may remain on their hosts for more than three weeks, but the females depart after engorging to oviposit. Infestation with ticks can be extremely high. Up to 99% of three-toed sloths, and 86.7% of two-toed sloths have been recorded carrying ticks of ''Amblyomma'' spp at Manaus, Brazil. The tick ''Ambylomma varium'' have been recorded underneath the thighs of maned sloths (''Bradypus torquatus'') examined in the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Most of the ticks were male (up to 83%) and the majority of sloths (60%) carried only male ticks.〔 Three species of macrochelid ascarine mites are recorded from inside the anus and rectum of three-toed sloths from Curari Island and Manaus. These are ''Macrocheles impae'', ''Macrocheles uroxys'' and ''Macrocheles lukoschusi''. Besides these, the blood-sucking mites ''Liponissus inheringi'', ''Lobalges trouessarti'' and ''Edentalges bradypus'' have been reported from three-toed sloths collected in southern Brazil. The mite ''Edentalges choloepi'' has also been recorded on ''Choloepus didactylus''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arthropods associated with sloths」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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