Abstract

Parasites comprise a significant percentage of the biodiversity of the planet and are useful systems to test evolutionary and ecological hypotheses. In this study, we analyze the effect of host species identity and the immediate local species assemblage within mixed species colonies of nesting seabirds on patterns of genetic clustering within two species of multihost ectoparasitic lice. We use three genetic markers (one mitochondrial, COI, and two nuclear, EF1-α and wingless) and maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees to test whether (1) parasites show lineage sorting based on their host species; and (2) switching of lineages to the alternate host species depends on the immediate local species assemblage of individual hosts within a colony. Specifically, we examine the genetic structure of two louse species: Eidmanniella albescens, infecting both Nazca (Sula granti) and blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii), and Fregatiella aurifasciata, infecting both great (Fregata minor) and magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens). We found that host species identity was the only factor explaining the patterns of genetic structure in both parasites. In both cases, there is evident genetic differentiation depending on the host species. Thus, a revision of the taxonomy of these louse species is needed. One possible explanation of this pattern is extremely low louse migration rates between host species, perhaps influenced by fine-scale spatial separation of host species within mixed colonies, and low parasite infrapopulation numbers.

Highlights

  • Parasites comprise a significant percentage of the planet’s biodiversity (Koh et al 2004; Whiteman and Parker 2005)

  • We studied the genetic structure of two multihost ectoparasitic lice: Eidmanniella albescens, parasitic on boobies (Sula spp.), and Fregatiella aurifasciata, parasitic on frigatebirds (Fregata spp.)

  • Studies carried out on the Pectinopygus genus of ischnoceran ectoparasitic lice infecting frigatebirds are consistent with our results; ectoparasite diversification appeared to follow a pattern of cospeciation with the host species (Hughes et al 2007)

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Summary

Introduction

Parasites comprise a significant percentage of the planet’s biodiversity (Koh et al 2004; Whiteman and Parker 2005). Parasites with a life history strongly tied to the host have proved to be excellent systems in which to pose questions on the generation and maintenance of diversity and on mechanisms of speciation (Johnson et al 2003a,b; Whiteman and Parker 2005; Whiteman et al 2007; Hughes et al 2007). Because their populations are fragmented into small a 2015 The Authors.

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