<strong>Host-parasite relationships in the system composed by cuckoos and quill mites</strong>

The Occurrence of Quill Mites (Arachnida: Acariformes: Syringophilidae) on Bee-Eaters (Aves: Coraciiformes: Meropidae: Merops) of Two Sister Clades

“…Another interesting fact in our parasite-host study system is not only the relatively high prevalence of infestation, compared to other wild avian taxa [ 21 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], but a situation when actually all taxa in the whole host clade are parasitized by quill mites. We never recorded a similar situation during our studies of quill mites, it is rather usual that some hosts, despite being sufficiently sampled, are not parasitized [ 21 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”

“…To visualize host phylogeny, a tree was constructed based on data available from (accessed on 28 October 2021) [ 18 ], using the “Ericson All Species tree” with 1000 randomly generated trees. Currently, this tool is widely used in bird evolutionary ecology studies (e.g., [ 19 , 20 ]), including the investigation of the host phylogenies of bird parasites [ 21 , 22 ]. The most credible tree was then determined using TreeAnnotator v1.8.2 in the software BEAST v1.8.2 [ 23 ].…”

Tanopicobia gen. nov., a new genus of quill mites, its phylogenetic placement in the subfamily Picobiinae (Acariformes: Syringophilidae) and picobiine relationships with avian hosts

“…As the source of data, we used the "Hackett All Species tree" with 1000 randomly generated trees. Currently, this tool is widely used in bird evolutionary ecology studies (e.g., [22,23], including the investigation the host phylogenies of bird parasites [7,24]). The most credible tree was then determined using the tool TreeAnnotator v1.8.2 in the software BEAST v1.8.2 [25].…”

“…In our study, the Calamincola represents either a sister group to all other picobiine genera (Fig 4A) or is a sister group to the genera forming Picobia-generic group (Fig 4B). It is worth to note that monoxenous C. lobatus represents the only species of the picobiine mite able to infest the quills of wing feathers, whereas all other genera occur entirely in contour feathers [1,3,4,24]. It is possible that the wing feathers, i.e., primaries and secondaries, are the ancestral type of syringophilid habitat, as the majority of the family Syringophilidae representatives are associated with the quills of these feathers [29][30][31][32].…”

Common generalist mites do not transmit from foster parents to brood parasitic chicks

“…Despite the long‐standing interest in avian brood parasitism, only a few studies have investigated how the lifestyle of avian brood parasites affects the ecology and transmission of their parasites (e.g. Atyeo & Gaud, 1983; Brooke & Nakamura, 1998; Hahn et al ., 2000; Vas et al ., 2013; Hromada et al ., 2016). Most of these studies have addressed the question of how ectoparasites are transmitted across brood parasite generations; yet, why avian brood parasites do not acquire the ectoparasites of their hosts still remains unexplored.…”