Logo image
Cophylogenetic analysis of lice in the Colpocephalum complex (Phthiraptera: Amblycera)
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Cophylogenetic analysis of lice in the Colpocephalum complex (Phthiraptera: Amblycera)

Therese A. Catanach, Michel P. Valim, Jason D. Weckstein and Kevin P. Johnson
Zoologica scripta, v 47(1)
01 Jan 2018

Abstract

Evolutionary Biology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Zoology
The chewing louse genus Colpocephalum parasitizes nearly a dozen distantly related orders of birds. Such a broad host distribution is relatively unusual in lice. However, the monophyly of the genus Colpocephalum has never been tested using molecular characters. Using one nuclear and one mitochondrial gene, we inferred a phylogeny for 54 lice from the genus Colpocephalum and other morphologically similar genera. The resulting phylogeny demonstrates that Colpocephalum itself is not monophyletic. However, these data support the existence of a Colpocephalum complex within which several lineages are restricted to particular host orders. These lineages corresponded to previously described genera, some of which are morphologically distinct and currently considered subgenera. Maddison-Slatkin tests were performed on the resulting phylogeny and showed that host order, host family and biogeographic region had significant phylogenetic signal when mapped onto the Colpocephalum complex phylogeny. A PARAFIT analysis comparing the overall Colpocephalum complex phylogeny to a host phylogeny revealed significant congruence between host and parasite trees. We also compared the cophylogenetic history of Colpocephalum and their hosts to that of a second distantly related feather louse genus, Degeeriella, which also infests diurnal birds of prey. Using PARAFIT to identify individual host-parasite links that contributed to overall congruence, there was no evidence of correlated cophylogenetic patterns between these two louse groups, suggesting that their host distribution patterns have been shaped by different evolutionary processes.

Metrics

11 Record Views
14 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Evolutionary Biology
Zoology
Logo image