The Evolution of Microhabitat Specialization in Avian Ischnocera: Displacement or Assortment?

摘要同域近缘物种在利用资源或逃避天敌方面往往存在差异。 这些重复的差异可以归因于两个过程：重复的字符位移或血统分类。 羽虱（昆虫纲：Ischnocera），寄生在鸟类，提供了一个机会，测试这两个替代品在一个相对多样化的系统，涉及几个主机微生境有关的寄生虫逃脱主机整理。 本研究将基于分子和形态学数据的整合，包括一个线粒体和三个核基因的DNA序列和近6000个碱基对，构建一个禽羽虱的系统发育。 该系统将允许对微生境专业化进行严格评估，这是宿主-寄生虫系统中第一次如此严格的测试。这种宿主-寄生虫系统的适应性是感兴趣的人口遗传学家，系统学家和生态学家，并有意义的理解感兴趣的医学和兽医昆虫学家的寄生关系的起源。 形态学和分子数据的整合将支持第一个严格的，现代的概念，羽毛虱生殖，并形成基础，大大改善和预测分类。

Abstract Closely related sympatric species often differ in the way they use resources or escape their natural enemies. These repeated differences can be attributed to two processes: repeated character displacement or lineage assortment. Feather lice (Insecta: Ischnocera), parasitic on birds, provide an opportunity to test for these two alternatives in a relatively diverse system that involves several host microhabitats related to parasite escape from host preening. This research will construct a phylogeny of avian feather lice based on an integration of molecular and morphological data, including DNA sequences for one mitochondrial and three nuclear genes and nearly 6000 base pairs. The phylogeny will permit a critical assessment of microhabitat specialization, the first such rigorous test in a host-parasite system. This host-parasite system of adaptations is of interest to population geneticists, systematists, and ecologists and has implications for understanding the origin of parasitic relationships of interest to medical and veterinary entomologists. Integration of morphological and molecular data will support the first rigorous, modern concepts of feather lice phylogeny and form the basis for greatly improved and predictive classifications.