Morphological variation of chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from different skua taxa

Abstract

The licc, Haffneria grandis and Saemundssonia were extracted from their hosts, skuas (Aves: Stercorariidae). Lice werr extracted from dead birds by combing feathers, while lice from live birds were extracted using a delousing chamber containing chloroform vapour. Lice were measured and the data analyscd by canonical discriminant analysis. Lice show variation in morphology that is useful in identifying some of these hosts. This variation is presumably due to micro-environmental pressure providcd by each host. O u r interpretation is that these chewing lice have evolved to be adapted to rach skua taxon; different sizes and morphologies of skua taxa result in dif€erent sizes and morphologies of Hafieria grandis and Saemundssonia. 0 20110 Thr Linnran Socictv of London ADDIlIONAL KEY WORDS:-parasite host interactionsskuas ~ coevolution ~ morphological variationtaxonomic indicator ~ ecophenotypic variation ~ host specific ~ morphomctric analysis.

Redescription of Antarctophthirus microchir (Anoplura: Echinophthiriidae) from the South American Sea Lion, Otaria flavescens, from Patagonia, Argentina

“…In addition, the taxonomy may be problematic because morphological characters of lice are often conservative (Page et al, 2004). Several authors have suggested that only multivariate analysis can detect significant variations between related lice from different hosts (Ramli et al, 2000). However, morphologically identical species may be genetically different.…”