@article {96626, title = {The parasitic louse genus Myrsidea (Amblycera: Menoponidae): a comprehensive review and world checklist}, journal = {Insect Systematics and Diversity}, volume = {8}, year = {2024}, month = {May-01-2024}, pages = {60 pp}, abstract = {

Abstract Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) is the most diverse genus of avian chewing lice. Myrsidea has a global distribution, is thought to be highly host-specific, and parasitizes mostly passerine birds. However, the rate of taxonomic studies describing new species is relatively low, and it is thought that much of the diversity of Myrsidea is yet to be discovered. This low rate of taxonomic description for this genus, and many others, may be related to the time-consuming nature of morphological species description and a lack of expertise in louse taxonomy. Furthermore, most of the taxonomic revisions and reviews have focused on specific host families, and no comprehensive review of the morphology and molecular work of Myrsidea has been completed in the last 20 years. Here, we review the taxonomy and systematics of Myrsidea to (i) describe this chewing louse genus and its biological importance; (ii) describe current problems with its taxonomy; (iii) simplify and summarize morphological descriptions; (iv) summarize molecular data; and (v) provide a comprehensive checklist of the Myrsidea species, with all publications and localities of occurrence included. Together, we hope that this information will provide researchers with a single source of information on the genus Myrsidea, making it easier for work to proceed on its taxonomy, systematics, ecology, and evolution. Importantly, our work highlights important gaps in our knowledge of Myrsidea, providing guideposts on where future work on Myrsidea is needed.

}, keywords = {checklist, lice, morphology, Phylogeny, taxonomy}, issn = {2399-3421}, doi = {10.1093/isd/ixae007}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/isd/article-abstract/8/3/1/7667553}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and Kevin P. Johnson and Jason D. Weckstein and Mohamed F. Sallam and Julie M. Allen} } @article {96574, title = {Parasite escape mechanisms drive morphological diversification in avian lice}, journal = {Proccedings of the Royal Society B}, volume = {291}, year = {2004}, pages = {12 pp}, type = {Open Access}, abstract = {

Organisms that have repeatedly evolved similar morphologies owing to the same selective pressures provide excellent cases in which to examine specific morphological changes and their relevance to the ecology and evolution of taxa. Hosts of permanent parasites act as an independent evolutionary experiment, as parasites on these hosts are thought to be undergoing similar selective pressures. Parasitic feather lice have repeatedly diversified into convergent ecomorphs in different microhabitats on their avian hosts. We quantified specific morphological characters to determine (i) which traits are associated with each ecomorph, (ii) the quantitative differences between these ecomorphs, and (iii) if there is evidence of displacement among co-occurring lice as might be expected under louse\–louse competition on the host. We used nano-computed tomography scan data of 89 specimens, belonging to four repeatedly evolved ecomorphs, to examine their mandibular muscle volume, limb length and three-dimensional head shape data. Here, we find evidence that lice repeatedly evolve similar morphologies as a mechanism to escape host defences, but also diverge into different ecomorphs related to the way they escape these defences. Lice that co-occur with other genera on a host exhibit greater morphological divergence, indicating a potential role of competition in evolutionary divergence.

}, keywords = {Bird lice, co-adaptations, CT scanning, Evolution, Guimaraesiella antiqua, micro-morphology, Neopsittaconirmus bushae}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2665}, url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2665}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Edward L. Stanley and Aswaj Punnath and Avery R. Grant and Jorge Do{\~n}a and Kevin P. Johnson and Julie M. Allen} } @article {95676, title = {Molecular phylogenetics of the avian feather louse Philopterus-complex (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae)}, journal = {Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution}, volume = {174}, year = {2022}, month = {Sep-01-2022}, pages = {7 pp}, abstract = {

Highlights

The avian feather louse Philopterus-complex (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Philopteridae) currently contains 12 genera that have been grouped together because of shared morphological characteristics. Although previously lumped into a single genus (Philopterus), more recent morphological treatments have separated the group into several different genera. Here we evaluate the status of these genera using DNA sequence data from 118 ingroup specimens belonging to ten genera in the Philopterus-complex: Australophilopterus Mey, 2004, Cinclosomicola Mey 2004, Clayiella Eichler, 1940, Corcorides Mey, 2004, Mayriphilopterus Mey, 2004, Paraphilopterus Mey 2004, Philopteroides Mey 2004, Philopterus Nitzsch, 1818, Tyranniphilopterus Mey, 2004, and Vinceopterus Gustafsson, Lei, Chu, Zou, and Bush, 2019. Our sampling includes 97 new louse-host association records. Our analyses suggest that the genus Debeauxoecus Conci, 1941, parasitic on pittas (Aves: Pittidae), is outside of the Philopterus-complex, and that there is strong support for the monophyly of a group containing the remaining genera from the complex. Some diverse genera, such as Philopterus (sensu stricto) and Mayriphilopterus are supported as monophyletic, whereas the genera Australophilopterus, Philopteroides, and Tyranniphilopterus are not. The present study is the largest phylogenetic reconstruction of avian lice belonging to the Philopterus-complex to date and suggests that further generic revision is needed in the group to integrate molecular and morphological information.

}, keywords = {Australophilopterus, Chewing lice, Cinclosomicola, Corcorides, dna, Mayriphilopterus, Molecular Biology, Philopteroides, Species complex, taxonomy, Tyranniphilopterus, Vinceopterus}, issn = {1055-7903}, doi = {10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107556}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1055790322001695}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Kevin P. Johnson and Avery R. Grant and Michel Paiva Valim and Kamila M. D. Kuabara and Jason D. Weckstein and Julie M. Allen} } @article {95610, title = {Phylogenetics and host-specificity of the mega-diverse louse genus Myrsidea (Amblycera: Menoponidae)}, journal = {Systematic Entomology}, volume = {47}, year = {2022}, month = {Jan-19-2022}, pages = {390-401}, type = {Early online version}, abstract = {

Myrsidea Waterston is the most diverse genus of chewing lice, primarily parasitizing perching birds (Passeriformes), which is the most speciose avian order. Myrsidea also parasitize several hosts from non-passerine groups, including toucans, barbets, woodpeckers (Piciformes) and hummingbirds (Apodiformes). To examine host specificity, host switching and generic limits, we reconstructed a phylogeny of the avian feather louse genus Myrsidea using DNA sequence data from two fragments of the mitochondrial COI gene and a fragment of the nuclear EF-1\α gene for 152 Myrsidea specimens collected from 23 avian host families. Unlike other highly diverse louse genera, only a small proportion of Myrsidea species parasitize more than one host species. We found that host family has significant phylogenetic signal on the Myrsidea phylogeny. These results suggest that Myrsidea is generally highly host-specific, with some exceptions where host switching is important. We found that there are two separate groups of Myrsidea that parasitize toucans, and that both are nested within Myrsidea found on perching birds, suggesting that these toucan ectoparasites may have arisen from two independent host switching events. Lastly, representatives of the genus Ramphasticola Carriker, which was originally described as a distinct genus due to a suite of morphologically unique characters, falls in with a strongly supported clade of Myrsidea parasitizing Ramphastos toucans, and therefore we definitively place Ramphasticola as a synonym of Myrsidea.

}, keywords = {Chewing lice, dna, parasites, Phylogeny, toucans}, issn = {0307-6970, 1365-3113}, doi = {10.1111/syen.12536}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/syen.12536}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Joseph A. Cacioppo and Kevin P. Johnson and Julie M. Allen and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and Jason D. Weckstein} } @article {95412, title = {Another puzzle piece in the systematics of the chewing louse genus Myrsidea, with a description of a new genus Apomyrsidea}, journal = {European Journal of Taxonomy}, volume = {748}, year = {2021}, month = {May-2021}, pages = {36-50}, abstract = {

A new avian chewing louse genus Apomyrsidea gen. nov. is described based on species parasitizing birds in the family Formicariidae. Diagnostic characteristics and phylogenetic analyses were used to evaluate and confirm the generic status and merit its recognition as unique and different from Myrsidea Waterston, 1915. Three species previously belonging to the genus Myrsidea are placed in the new genus Apomyrsidea gen. nov. and are discussed: Apomyrsidea circumsternata (Valim \& Weckstein, 2013) gen. et comb. nov., Apomyrsidea isacantha (Valim \& Weckstein, 2013) gen. et comb. nov. and Apomyrsidea klimesi (Sychra in Sychra et al., 2006) gen. et comb. nov.

}, keywords = {Apomyrsidea, Apomyrsidea circumsternata, Apomyrsidea isacantha, Apomyrsidea klimesi, morphology, new genus, Phylogeny}, issn = {2118-9773}, doi = {10.5852/ejt.2021.748.1339}, url = {https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/1339}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and Julie M. Allen} } @article {95411, title = {Myrsidea quadrifasciata (Phthiraptera: Amblycera) {\textendash} a unique host generalist among highly host-specific chewing lice}, journal = {Arthropod Systematics \& Phylogeny}, volume = {79}, year = {2021}, month = {Aug-2021}, pages = {379-400}, abstract = {

Abstract Ten species of the louse genus Myrsidea belonging to the \“serini-species-group\” have been reviewed. A redescription of Myrsidea quadrifasciata (Piaget, 1880), the earliest described and valid species of this species complex, is given and a neotype for this species is designated. Nine new junior synonymies of M. quadrifasciata are proposed and discussed. The new synonyms and their respective type hosts are: Myrsidea anoxanthi Price and Dalgleish, 2007 from Loxipasser anoxanthus (Gosse, 1847), Myrsidea argentina (Kellogg, 1906) from Spinus magellanicus (Vieillot, 1805), Myrsidea balati Mach\á{\v c}ek, 1977 from Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758), Myrsidea darwini Palma and Price, 2010 from Geospiza fuliginosa Gould, 1837, Myrsidea major (Piaget, 1880) from Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Myrsidea serini (S\éguy, 1944) from Serinus serinus (Linnaeus, 1766), Myrsidea queleae Tendeiro, 1964 from Quelea quelea lathami (Smith, A., 1836), Myrsidea textoris Klockenhoff, 1984 from Ploceus cucullatus cucullatus (M\üller, 1776), and Myrsidea viduae Tendeiro, 1993 from Vidua macroura (Pallas, 1764). Intraspecific morphometric variability, relative genetic divergence (based on a 379 bp portion of the mitochondrial COI gene and a 347 bp portion of the nuclear EF-1\α gene), geographical distribution, and host associations, including 8 new host records for these lice, are discussed. Taking into consideration these parameters we suggest that the only way to deal with these taxa is to follow concept of subspecies with the following taxa and their geographic distributon: Palearctic Region: M. q. quadrifasciata and M. q. serini, Neotropical Region: M. q. anoxanthi, M. q. argentina, M. q. darwini, Paleotropic Region: M. q. queleae, M. q. textoris and M. q. viduae.

}, keywords = {chewing louse, geographic distribution, Host specificity, morphometry, Myrsidea anoxanthi, Myrsidea darwini, parasite, polyxenous}, issn = {1864-8312, 1863-7221}, doi = {10.3897/asp.79.e63975}, url = {https://arthropod-systematics.arphahub.com/article/63975/element/7/0/vidua/}, author = {Old{\v r}ich Sychra and KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Ivo Papou{\v s}ek and Branka Bilbija and Ivan Liter{\'a}k} } @article {94404, title = {New species and additional data on the chewing louse genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from wild Neotropical Passeriformes (Aves)}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4418}, year = {2018}, month = {Oct-05-2018}, pages = {401 - 431}, abstract = {

Twenty-four species of chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from Neotrop- ical Suboscines (Passeriformes: Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Pipridae, Thamnophilidae, Tityridae, Tyrannidae) are record- ed and discussed. They include: eight new species which are described and illustrated (Myrsidea capeki new species ex Chiroxiphia caudata; Myrsidea leptopogoni new species ex Leptopogon superciliaris; Myrsidea leucophthalmi new spe- cies ex Automolus leucophthalmus; Myrsidea pachyramphi new species ex Pachyramphus polychopterus; Myrsidea phi- lydori new species ex Philydor rufum; Myrsidea pyriglenae new species ex Pyriglena leucoptera; Myrsidea scleruri new species ex Sclerurus scansor and Myrsidea zuzanae new species ex Furnarius rufus), as well as nine previously known species with additional data on intraspecific morphological variability, host associations and geographical distribution (Myrsidea barbati Price, Hellenthal \& Dalgleish, 2005; Myrsidea dalgleishi Valim, Price \& Johnson, 2011; Myrsidea fla- viventris Price, Hellenthal \& Dalgleish, 2005; Myrsidea klimesi Sychra, 2006; Myrsidea meyi Valim, Price \& Johnson, 2011; Myrsidea oleaginei Price, Hellenthal \& Dalgleish, 2005; Myrsidea olivacei Price, Hellenthal \& Dalgleish, 2005; Myrsidea pitangi Price, Hellenthal \& Dalgleish, 2005 and Myrsidea spellmani Price, Johnson \& Dalgleish, 2008b). Seven 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 from seven species in order to assess relative genetic divergences among Myrsidea populations.

}, keywords = {Brazil, COI, Costa Rica, Honduras, new data, new species, Paraguay, Peru, Suboscines, Thamnophilidae, Tityridae}, issn = {1175-5326 (print), 1175-5334 (online)}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4418.51}, url = {https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/viewFile/38713/33069}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and Ivo Papou{\v s}ek and Kamila M. D. Kuabara and Michel Paiva Valim and Ivan Liter{\'a}k} } @article {94324, title = {Where are the species limits? Morphology versus genetics in Neotropical chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae), with description of three new species}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4324}, year = {2017}, month = {26 Sept. 2017}, pages = {161 - 179}, abstract = {

Eleven species of lice of the genus Myrsidea Waterston, 1915 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from passerine birds (Passer- iformes: 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 morpholog- ical 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.

}, keywords = {Cardinalidae, Fringillidae, genetic data, Honduras, intraspecific and interspecific divergences, lice, new host-louse associations, new species, Paraguay, Peru, Thraupidae}, url = {http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/viewFile/zootaxa.4324.1.9/12496}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and Ivo Papou{\v s}ek and Ivan Liter{\'a}k} } @article {68991, title = {Three new species of Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from New Zealand passerines (Aves: Passeriformes)}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4126}, year = {2016}, month = {Aug-06-2017}, pages = {397}, abstract = {

Myrsidea ivanliteraki new species, M. novaeseelandiae new species, and M. hihi new species are described and illustrated from New Zealand birds, with Gymnorhina tibicen, Anthornis melanura and Notiomystis cincta as type hosts respectively. Also, Myrsidea vincula is redescribed and illustrated from one sample ex Strepera fuliginosa from Australia. Keys for the identification of females and males of the five species of Myrsidea recorded from New Zealand are also given.

}, keywords = {Amblycera, Artamidae, Australia, lice, Meliphagidae, Menoponidae, Myrsidea, new species, new zealand, Notio- mystidae, Passeriformes, Phthiraptera}, issn = {1175-5326}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4126.310.11646/zootaxa.4126.3.5}, url = {https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4126.3.5}, author = {Old{\v r}ich Sychra and KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Ricardo L. Palma} } @article {68952, title = {New data on the taxonomy and distribution of ten Neotropical chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae), including the description of a new species}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4085}, year = {2016}, month = {Feb-03-2016}, pages = {233}, abstract = {

The new species Myrsidea alexanderi is described and illustrated ex Pheugopedius maculipectus (Troglodytidae) from Honduras. Redescriptions and illustrations are given for both sexes of Myrsidea chiapensis ex Calocitta formosa from Costa Rica, and the male of M. dissimilis ex Progne chalybea from Brazil. Also, seven other previously known species or subspecies of the louse genus Myrsidea are recorded and discussed from passerine birds of the Neotropical Region, as follows: Myrsidea antiqua, Myrsidea balteri, Myrsidea diffusa, Myrsidea nesomimi borealis, Myrsidea paleno, Myrsidea psittaci and Myrsidea serini. Our data increase knowledge of intraspecific morphological variability within these species, and also of their host and geographical distribution. New host-louse associations are: Agelaioides badius for M. psittaci; Basileuterus culicivorus and Myiothlypis leucoblephara for M. paleno; Mimus saturninus for M. nesomimi borealis; and Icterus dominicensis and Molothrus rufoaxillaris for Myrsidea sp.

}, keywords = {Amblycera, Chewing lice, Myrsidea, Neotropical region, new host-louse associations, new species, passerine, Phthiraptera, redescriptions}, issn = {1175-5326}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4085.210.11646/zootaxa.4085.2.4}, url = {http://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/issue/view/zootaxa.4085.2}, author = {KOLENCIK, STANISLAV and Old{\v r}ich Sychra and MIROSLAV VALAN and Ivan Liter{\'a}k} }