Diversity and host associations of Myrsidea chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) in the tropical rainforest of Malaysian Borneo

Abstract

The tropical rainforests of Sundaland are a global biodiversity hotspot increasingly threatened by human activities. While parasitic insects are an important component of the ecosystem, their diversity and parasite-host relations are poorly understood in the tropics. We investigated parasites of passerine birds, the chewing lice of the speciose genus Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) in a natural rainforest community of Malaysian Borneo. Based on morphology, we registered 10 species of lice from 14 bird species of six different host families. This indicated a high degree of host specificity and that the complexity of the system could be underestimated with the potential for cryptic lineages/species to be present. We tested the species boundaries by combining morphological, genetic and host speciation diversity. The phylogenetic relationships of lice were investigated by analyzing the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I ( COI ) and the nuclear elongation factor alpha ( EF-1α ) genes sequences of the species. This revealed a monophyletic group of Myrsidea lineages from seven hosts of the avian family Pycnonotidae, one host of Timaliidae and one host of Pellorneidae. However, species delimitation methods supported the species boundaries hypothesized by morphological studies and confirmed that four species of Myrsidea are not single host specific. Cophylogenetic analysis by both distance-based test ParaFit and event-based method Jane confirmed overall congruence between the phylogenies of Myrsidea and their hosts. In total we recorded three cospeciation events for 14 host-parasite associations. However only one host-parasite link ( M. carmenae and their hosts Terpsiphone affinis and Hypothymis azurea) was significant after the multiple testing correction in ParaFit. Four new species are described: Myrsidea carmenae sp.n. ex Hypothymis azurea and Terpsiphone affinis , Myrsidea franciscae sp.n. ex Rhipidura javanica , Myrsidea ramoni sp.n. ex Copsychus malabaricus stricklandii , and Myrsidea victoriae sp.n. ex. Turdinus sepiarius .

Restricted Geographic Sampling Yields Low Parasitism Rates but Surprisingly Diverse Host Associations in Avian Lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from South Texas

“…The genus Myrsidea is the most speciose genus in Phthiraptera, with 350 described species and new species frequently being described (e.g., [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75]). In our study, there are six distinct genetic lineages within Myrsidea (Figure 2).…”

Prevalence and diversity of parasitic bird lice (Insecta: Psocodea) in northeast Arkansas

“…For example, a significant proportion (5–10%) of parasite species are predicted to go extinct by 2070 due to climate related factors; however, this hypothesis is challenged by the lack of data on population dynamics and biodiversity for many groups of parasites and/or geographic regions ( Poulin et al, 2011 ; Toit et al, 2013 ; Carlson et al, 2017 ). The limited dispersal of some parasites decreases effective population sizes and restricts gene flow ( Madrid et al, 2020 ). This can result in parasites being vulnerable to extinction, even when their hosts are not ( Madrid et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The limited dispersal of some parasites decreases effective population sizes and restricts gene flow ( Madrid et al, 2020 ). This can result in parasites being vulnerable to extinction, even when their hosts are not ( Madrid et al, 2020 ).…”

Morphological and molecular evidence reveals a new species of chewing louse Pancola ailurus n. sp. (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) from the endangered Chinese red panda Ailurus styani

“…The traditional methods for the identification and differentiation of louse species are based on the morphological features and the relevant information of hosts or geographical origin ( Madrid et al, 2020 ), and the morphological method helped identify and distinguish over 5000 louse species based on the last worldwide checklist ( Price et al, 2003 ). To date, morphology is still considered the mainstream for identifying new species in a lot of studies ( Lei et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Sychra and Palma, 2021 ; Jie et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Additionally, the molecular method was also developed as a rapid detection of lice infestations ( Tran et al, 2022 ). Moreover, a large literature on both sucking and chewing lice added molecular information as supplementary data when describing new species ( Valim and Weckstein, 2013 ; Najer et al, 2014 ; Kolencik et al, 2018 ; Durden et al, 2019 ; Madrid et al, 2020 ). Herein, we aim to combine morphological characters with molecular data for better identifying louse species.…”