Basal ischnoceran louse phylogeny (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Goniodidae and Heptapsogasteridae)

VINCENT S. SMITH

Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Corresponding Author: Vince Smith
e-mail: v.smith@nhm.ac.uk

Status: Published in Systematic Entomology

Abstract

A phylogenetic analysis of generic relationships for avian chewing lice of the families Goniodidae and Heptapsogasteridae (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) is presented. These lice, hosted by galliform, columbiform and tinamiform birds are reputedly basal in the phylogeny of Ischnocera. A cladistic analysis of sixty-two adult morphological characters from thirty-one taxa revealed thirty equally parsimonious trees. The phylogeny is well resolved within the Heptapsogasteridae and supports the monophyly of the subfamily Strongylocotinae (sensu Eichler, 1963). Resolution within the Goniodidae is lower but suggests that the genera hosted by Columbiformes are largely monophyletic. Mapping host taxonomy on to the phylogeny of the lice reveals a consistent pattern which is largely congruent down to the rank of host family, although at lower taxonomic levels the association appears to be more complex. The inclusion of more louse taxa may considerably help to unravel the coevolutionary history of both the hosts and their parasites.

---

Reprint

This is available to download as an Adode Acrobat PDF file. To view these you need Adobe Acrobat, which is available for Macs, PCs, and Unix from here. With version 3.0 you can view PDF files from within your Web browser.

(PDF 0.95MB) Smith, V. S. (2000) Basal ischnoceran louse phylogeny (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Goniodidae and Heptapsogasteridae). Systematic Entomology 25: 73-94.

NEXUS File and Images

The full data matrix can be downloaded in NEXUS format. Two options are available for downloading:

Simple Matrix (Complete data matrix but without charcater descriptions)	Full Dataset (Complete data set with character descriptions)
Ideal for simple analyses	For NDE or MacClade users

This data set is best viewed with NEXUS Data Editor (NDE), a PC program writtain by Rod Page. This fully impliments the NEXUS format and allows character names, states, notes, comments and images to be easily viewed and edited. MacClade users will be able to view character and taxon images. However, due to a limitation in the way MacClade displays text, only the first 32 characters of each field can be viewed.