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Macroecology and macroevolution of avian chewing lice (Insecta: Psocodea: Phthiraptera), parasites of neotropical birds (Aves)
Dissertation

Macroecology and macroevolution of avian chewing lice (Insecta: Psocodea: Phthiraptera), parasites of neotropical birds (Aves)

Kamila Mayumi Duarte Kuabara
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00010574
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Kuabara_Kamila_20248.97 MB
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Abstract

Biology--Classification--Molecular aspects Birds Ectoparasitic infestations Lice Neotropics Phthiraptera Brazil Evolution
Studies of the ecology and evolution of host-parasite associations of birds and their ectoparasites have played an important role in the development of both our theoretical and empirical understanding of the ecology and evolution of parasitism. Lice (Insecta: Psocodea: Phthiraptera), which are a diverse and variable group of permanent ectoparasites of birds and mammals, have been models for studying these aspects of parasitism. In general, permanent parasites depend on their host for survival and complete their entire life cycle on that host. Due to their high host specificity, lice are excellent models for understanding both the ecological processes and evolutionary patterns of host-parasite relationships. Lice have been the focus of numerous studies of coevolution, population genetics, population ecology, biodiversity, alpha taxonomy, and many other aspects of parasitism. For my dissertation research I studied both the ecology and evolution of Neotropical louse communities, exploring the diversity of these ectoparasites. In Chapter II, I analyzed a large collection of avian chewing louse specimens that were quantitatively collected from avian host communities in four Amazonian areas of endemism, in Brazil and Peru. This study produced the largest ecological survey of avian lice from the Neotropics and identified the relationship between parasite and host life history variation as potential mechanisms driving the abundance, prevalence, and infestation probability for this iconic group of parasites. In Chapter III, I conducted a phylogenomic analysis of a hyperdiverse focal louse family, the Heptapsogasteridae (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera), occurring on tinamous (Aves: Tinamiformes: Tinamidae) to test higher level classifications (e.g. subfamilies and genera) and to assess monophyly of genera and subfamilies that are defined by the current taxonomic literature. Lastly, in Chapter IV I used the same phylogenomic tree to complete a phylogenetic comparative analysis of the evolution of body size in the louse family Heptapsogasteridae to test two ecomorphological rules (i.e. Harrison's and Rensch's rules). Thus, my dissertation encompasses three data chapters starting with the hypotheses about the drivers of parasites prevalence, abundance, and infestation probability on several geographically widespread communities of birds and their parasitic lice and then I focus in on a single but hyperdiverse family of lice, the Heptapsogasteridae, which are found mostly on tinamous, to reconstruct the macroevolutionary history of the group. I used a phylogenomic analysis on this group to test hypotheses about the higher-level classification of the family, including testing subfamilial and generic limits in the group. I also used information about host specificity (e.g host genera) to test whether clades of these lice are specific to clades of hosts. Finally, I used this phylogeny to complete an analysis that tests two hypotheses that may explain body size evolution in these same tinamou lice.

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