Independent origins of the feather lice (Insecta:Degeeriella) of raptors

Abstract

Although diurnal birds of prey have historically been placed in a single order due to a number of morphological characters, recent molecular phylogenies have suggested that this is a case of convergence rather than homology, with hawks (Accipitridae) and falcons (Falconidae) forming two distantly related groups within birds. The feather lice of birds have often been used as a model for comparing host and parasite phylogenies, and in some cases there is significant congruence between the two. Thus, studying the phylogeny of the lice of diurnal raptors may be of particular interest with respect to the independent evolution of hawks vs. falcons. Using one mitochondrial gene and three nuclear genes, we inferred a phylogeny for the feather louse genus Degeeriella (which are all obligate raptor ectoparasites) and related genera. This phylogeny indicated that Degeeriella is polyphyletic, with lice from falcons vs. hawks forming two distinct clades. Falcon lice were sister to lice from African woodpeckers, whereas Capraiella, a genus of lice from rollers lice, was embedded within Degeeriella from hawks. This phylogeny showed significant geographical structure, with host geography playing a larger role than host taxonomy in explaining louse phylogeny, particularly within clades of closely related lice. However, the louse phylogeny does reflect host phylogeny at a broad scale; for example, lice from the hawk genus Accipiter form a distinct clade. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 114, 837–847.

Temporal and spatial mosaics: deep host association and shallow geographic drivers shape genetic structure in a widespread pinworm,Rauschtineria eutamii(Nematoda: Oxyuridae)

“…Individuals in the QUAD‐M and QUAD‐S clades both seem to be able to infect multiple members of the T. quadrivittatus host species group and the structure among these pinworms appears to be primarily geographic, as has been demonstrated in other parasite taxa (Catanach & Johnson, ). Furthermore, all the QUAD‐N and QUAD‐M localities and several of the QUAD‐S localities are found within the geographic distribution of T. minimus , yet we only captured one instance of a switch to a T. minimus host in the QUAD clades.…”

Cophylogenetic analysis of lice in theColpocephalumcomplex (Phthiraptera: Amblycera)

“…Twelve host species of Colpocephalum included in this phylogenetic study also harbour Degeeriella , a second louse genus parasitizing diurnal birds of prey. These Degeeriella species were previously included in a phylogenetic study of the genus (Catanach & Johnson, ). Following the methods outlined in Sweet, Boyd, and Johnson (), we used the R implementation of PARAFIT (in package “ape”; Legendre, Desdevises, & Bazin, ; Paradis, Claude, & Strimmer, ) to evaluate whether cophylogenetic patterns were correlated between the two codistributed louse genera.…”

“…Recently, molecular phylogenetic data have called into question the validity of many louse genera that parasitize distantly related hosts. For example, the ischnoceran louse genus Degeeriella Neumann, 1906, which parasitizes hawks (Accipitriformes) and falcons (Falconiformes), consists of two distinct, distantly related non‐sister lineages, one specific to each host order (Catanach & Johnson, ).…”

“…Here we reconstruct a phylogeny for Colpocephalum and Kurodaia to: (i) test the monophyly of Colpocephalum (including previously recognized subgenera and synonymized genera, (ii) test the validity of Kurodaia and included subgenera and (iii) directly compare the phylogeny of these lice to that for Degeeriella (Catanach & Johnson, ), which is distributed on some of the same groups of birds. The goal of this comparison is to evaluate whether codistributed parasites exhibit correlated divergence events as a result of concordant evolutionary events such as shared vicariance.…”

Two lineages of kingfisher feather lice exhibit differing degrees of cospeciation with their hosts

“…All other Chloroceryle americana lice included in our phylogeny are from South America and identified as Alcedoffula columbiana Carriker, 1959. This paraphyly among Chloroceryle americana lice could be the result of geographically specific louse species infecting a single host species (Catanach and Johnson, 2015). Catanach and Johnson (2015) found that Old World and New World Buteo lagopus Pontoppidan, 1763 (Accipitriformes, Accipitridae) were parasitized by distantly related lice.…”