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Sex differences in levels of parasite infection are a common rule in a wide range of mammals, with males usually more susceptible than females. Sex‐specific exposure to parasites, e.g. mediated through distinct modes of social aggregation between and within genders, as well as negative relationships between androgen levels and immune defences are thought to play a major role in this pattern.

Reproductive female bats live in close association within clusters at maternity roosts, whereas nonbreeding females and males generally occupy solitary roosts. Bats represent therefore an ideal model to study the consequences of sex‐specific social and spatial aggregation on parasites’ infection strategies.

We first compared prevalence and parasite intensities in a host–parasite system comprising closely related species of ectoparasitic mites (Spinturnix spp.) and their hosts, five European bat species. We then …