(Haemosporida: Plasmodiidae): A review of association with bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) and the first record in the Neotropical bat, (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) from Colombia.

Some species within the family Plasmodiidae (Haemosporida) have been extensively studied due to their implications for human health. However, for other haemosporidians that infect wild animals the knowledge is limited. Species within the genus have thus far been documented exclusively as hemoparasites of bats. Records of are primarily from Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with limited information available for the Americas. Here, we assessed the state of knowledge on species infecting bats worldwide and searched for the presence of in blood samples of neotropical bats from Colombia. We found a total of 65 records of in 46 bat species belonging to the families Emballonuridae, Hipposideridae, Miniopteridae, Rhinolophidae, Rhinonycteridae, and Vespertilionidae worldwide, except for Antarctica. In the Americas, records of the genus are exclusively from Vespertilionidae bats in Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Panama. The morphological and molecular analyses of blood from 125 bats, belonging to 39 species and captured in seven localities within the departments of Arauca and Caldas (Colombia), confirmed the presence of in a silver-tipped myotis, (Vespertilionidae). This finding represents the first morphological and molecular confirmation of . in the Americas. Additionally, it expands the knowledge on the diversity and distribution of in Neotropical bats.