@article {94955, title = {Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia}, journal = {Parasites \& Vectors}, volume = {13}, year = {2020}, month = {Feb-2020}, pages = {15 pp}, type = {Research Paper}, abstract = {

Background: Historical European exploration and colonization resulted in the introduction of four species of rodents to the Australian continent from Eurasia: the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, the black rat, R. rattus, the Pacific rat, R. exulans, and the house mouse, Mus musculus. The spread of these rodents created opportunities for their co-introduced sucking lice to parasitize and adapt to endemic rodents in Australia.
Methods: We collected sucking lice from rodent specimens in seven museums across Australia. We\  identified the spiny rat louse, Polyplax spinulosa, based on morphology. We sequenced the mitochondrial cox1 and rrnL genes of P. spinulosa specimens and constructed a phylogenetic tree with rrnL sequences.
Results: We examined 989 rodent specimens of 54 species and collected 2111 adult sucking lice and 1064 nymphal sucking lice. We found that P. spinulosa had nearly doubled its host range by parasitizing at least six endemic rodent species in Australia. The other two introduced lice, P. serrata and Hoplopleura pacifica, however, have apparently failed to expand to any endemic rodents in Australia. Our analysis of mitochondrial rrnL gene sequences divided P. spinulosa into two genotypes (European vs Southeast Asian), which differ by 7.5\%; both genotypes were introduced into Australia and then expanded their host ranges to include endemic rodents.
Conclusions: The earliest record of a European ship landing in Australia was in 1606, followed by British settlement in 1788. The expansion of P. spinulosa to at least six endemic rodent species in Australia has therefore occurred in the time frame of 200 to 400 years, which is extremely rapid relative to its host expansion to eight native rat species in Eurasia in ~ 16 million years since it diverged from P. serrata. The host expansion of P. spinulosa is remarkable for a blood-sucking louse and is in stark contrast to the absence of host expansion by P. serrata and H. pacifica. Comparison among these three introduced sucking lice indicated that both louse-specific factors and host-specific factors can contribute to the success or failure of host expansion.

}, keywords = {host-parasite relationships, Invasive species, Psocodea, rodents, sucking lice}, doi = {10.1186/s13071-020-3957-y}, url = {https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-020-3957-y}, author = {Wei Wang and Lance A. Durden and Renfu Shao} } @article {94452, title = {A new species of sucking louse Hoplopleura villosissima n. sp. (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Hoplopleuridae) and a new host record of the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa Burmeister, 1839 (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae) from the long-haired rat Rattus}, journal = {Parasites \& Vectors}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-12-2018}, pages = {8pp}, chapter = {476}, abstract = {

Full title : A new species of sucking louse Hoplopleura villosissima n. sp. (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Hoplopleuridae) and a new host record of the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa Burmeister, 1839 (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae) from the long-haired rat Rattus villosissimus Waite (Rodentia: Muridae) in Australia

Background: The sucking louse fauna of endemic Australian rodents has been under-studied for decades. Sixty-five species of native rodents have been recorded in Australia. However, only 11 species of lice have been reported from 11 species of endemic Australian rodents.

Results: We describe a new species of sucking louse, Hoplopleura villosissima Wang (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Hoplopleuridae), and report a new host record of the spiny rat louse, Polyplax spinulosa Burmeister, 1839 (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), from the long-haired rat, Rattus villosissimus Waite (Rodentia: Muridae), which is endemic to Australia.

Conclusions: This study is the first record of sucking louse from R. villosissimus and the first record of a species of Polyplax Enderlein, 1904 from an endemic Australian rodent. This study brings the total number of sucking louse species in endemic Australian rodents from 11 to 13. Previously, only the introduced brown rat, Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout and the black rat, Rattus rattus Linnaeus were recorded as the hosts of P. spinulosa in Australia. Because R. villosissimus overlaps with R. rattus in distribution but not with R. norvegicus, we propose that P. spinulosa transferred to R. villosissimus from R. rattus.

}, keywords = {new species, Psocodea}, doi = {10.1186/s13071-018-3037-8}, url = {https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-018-3037-8}, author = {Wei Wang and Weaver,Haylee J. and Fan Song and Lance A. Durden and Renfu Shao} }