Twenty-four species of chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from Neotropical Suboscines (Passeriformes: Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Pipridae, Thamnophilidae, Tityridae, Tyrannidae) are recorded and discussed. They include: eight new species which are described and illustrated (Myrsidea capeki new species ex Chiroxiphia caudata; Myrsidea leptopogoni new species ex Leptopogon superciliaris; Myrsidea leucophthalmi new species ex Automolus leucophthalmus; Myrsidea pachyramphi new species ex Pachyramphus polychopterus; Myrsidea philydori new species ex Philydor rufum; Myrsidea pyriglenae new species ex Pyriglena leucoptera; Myrsidea scleruri new species ex Sclerurus scansor and Myrsidea zuzanae new species ex Furnarius rufus), as well as nine previously known species with additional data on intraspecific morphological variability, host associations and geographical distribution
Abstract:Five new species of Mulcticola Clay et Meinertzhagen, 1938 are described and illustrated from Brazil. These new species and their hosts are: Mulcticola sicki sp. n. from the sand-coloured nighthawk, Chordeiles rupestris rupestris (Spix), Mulcticola bacurau sp. n. from the common pauraque, Nyctidromus albicollis (Gmelin), Mulcticola tendeiroi sp. n. from the long-trained nightjar, Macropsalis forcipata (Nitzsch), Mulcticola piacentinii sp. n. from the short-tailed nighthawk, Lurocalis semitorquatus semitorquatus (Gmelin) (type-host) and L. s. nattereri (Temminck), and Mulcticola parvulus sp. n. from the little nightjar, Setopagis parvula (Gould). These species were compared primarily with Mulcticola nacunda Carriker, 1945 from the nacunda nighthawk, Chordeiles nacunda nacunda (Vieillot), which is one of the species of Mulcticola previously recorded in the Neotropical region. All the five new species described herein differ from their congeners by exclusive characters such as the shape of anterior dorsal head plate, metasternal plate, subvulvar plates in females and genitalia in males. We increased the number of species in Mulcticola to 18 in total, with seven of them now known from the Neotropics. We present the main morphological characters to distinguish Mulcticola from other species of the Philopteridae parasitising Caprimulgiformes and also compile a detailed catalogue for species included in this louse genus.
Neotropical birds are mostly parasitized by immature ticks and act as reservoir hosts of tick‐borne pathogens of medical and veterinary interest. Hence, determining the factors that enable ticks to encounter these highly mobile hosts and increase the potential for tick dispersal throughout migratory flyways are important for understanding tick‐borne disease transmission. We used 9682 individual birds from 572 species surveyed across Brazil and Bayesian models to disentangle possible avian host traits and climatic drivers of infestation probabilities, accounting for avian host phylogenetic relationships and spatiotemporal factors that may influence tick prevalence. Our models revealed that the probability of an individual bird being infested with tick larvae and nymphs was lower in partial migrant hosts and during the wet season. Notably, infestation probability increased in areas with a higher proportion of partial migrant birds. Other avian ecological traits known to influence tick prevalence (foraging habitat and body mass) and environmental condition that might constrain tick abundance (annual precipitation and minimum temperature) did not explain infestation probability. Our findings suggest that migratory flyways harbouring a greater abundance of migrant bird hosts also harbour a higher prevalence of immature ticks with potential to enhance the local transmission of tick‐borne pathogens and spread across regions.
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