Where are the species limits? Morphology versus genetics in Neotropical chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae), with description of three new species

Abstract

Eleven species of lice of the genus Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from passerine birds (Passeriformes: Cardinalidae, Fringillidae, Thraupidae) in the Neotropical Region are recorded and discussed. They include three new species with hosts in the family Thraupidae from Paraguay, which are described and illustrated: Myrsidea flaveolae new species ex Sicalis flaveola, Myrsidea habiae new species ex Habia rubica, and Myrsidea sayacae new species ex Thraupis sayaca. Five other previously known Myrsidea species are included with new data on intraspecific morphological variability, hosts associations and geographical distribution, as follows: Myrsidea coronatae, M. lightae, M. rufi, M. seminuda, and M. violaceae. Three further species are recorded at genus level only due to lack of adequate material. A 379 bp portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene was sequenced in order to assess relative genetic divergence among Myrsidea populations. The application of intra-and interspecific sequence divergences as predictor of species boundaries in the taxonomy of this megadiverse genus is discussed.

New species and additional data on the chewing louse genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from wild Neotropical Passeriformes (Aves)

“…As expected, the closest species among other published sequences of Neotropical Myrsidea was M. ochrolaemi (ex Automolus ochrolaemus (Tschudi, 1844), family Furnariidae, GenBank JN638820), with a sequence divergence of 11.7%. This divergence is close to the limit of accepted interspecific variation (see Price et al 2008a;Kolencik et al 2017) but, together with their morphological differences, we are confident that M. leucophthalmi and M. ochrolaemi represent separate species. Remarks.…”

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).…”

Another puzzle piece in the systematics of the chewing louse genus Myrsidea, with a description of a new genus Apomyrsidea

“…10). The familiar issue with lower support values (mostly in basal nodes) is often present when using only a single gene fragment (e.g., Kolencik et al 2017). Unfortunately, the sequences, and their quality, for amblyceran species submitted to the GenBank database are limited and mostly only for a 379bp fragment of COI and/ or a 347bp fragment of nuclear EF-1a (elongation factor 1 alpha) gene.…”