Two new species of Brueelia (Phthiraptera: Philopteridas s. l.) parasitic on two species of Phrygilus (Aves: Emberizidae) from Chile

An annotated catalogue of bird lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from Chile

The species and subspecies of chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) parasitic on Chilean birds are listed and annotated, based on records published until October 2021 and from our examination of collections. The current scientific name, its taxonomic history, data on type material, type host, other hosts, geographic distribution within Chile and elsewhere, Chilean literature references and other significant references are given for each species or subspecies of lice. A total of four families, 76 genera, and 245 species and subspecies of lice are listed, including 17 species recorded as genus only, and 31 new records of species. A host-louse list—including a total of 155 bird species (146 native and nine introduced by human agency) belonging to 19 orders, 43 families and 107 genera—is also given.

External and intestinal parasites of the Austral thrush Turdus falcklandii (Aves, Turdidae) in central Chile

A total of thirty Austral thrushes Turdus falcklandii Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 (Turdidae) carcasses were brought to the Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Concepción, to be examined for ecto- and endoparasites. Ectoparasites were found on 20% (6/30) of the thrushes and belonged to species Brueelia magellanica Cichino, 1986 (Phthiraptera), Menacanthus eurysternus Burmeister, 1838 (Phthiraptera) and Tyrannidectes falcklandicus Mironov & González-Acuña, 2011 (Acari). Endoparasites were isolated from 26.6% (8/30) of the birds and identified as Lueheia inscripta Westrumb, 1821 (Acanthocephala), Plagiorhynchus cylindraceus Goeze, 1782 (Acanthocephala), Wardium sp. sensu Mayhew, 1925 (Cestoda), Dilepis undula (Cestoda) Schrank, 1788, and Zonorchis sp. (sensu Travassos, 1944) (Trematoda). To our knowledge, all endoparasites collected in this study are new records in T. falcklandii and expand their distributional range to Chile.

Unlocking the black box of feather louse diversity: A molecular phylogeny of the hyper-diverse genus Brueelia

Songbirds host one of the largest, and most poorly understood, groups of lice: the Brueelia-complex. The Brueelia-complex contains nearly one-tenth of all known louse species (Phthiraptera), and the genus Brueelia has over 300 species. To date, revisions have been confounded by extreme morphological variation, convergent evolution, and periodic movement of lice between unrelated hosts. Here we use Bayesian inference based on mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (EF-1α) gene fragments to analyze the phylogenetic relationships among 333 individuals within the Brueelia-complex. We show that the genus Brueelia, as it is currently recognized, is paraphyletic. Many well-supported and morphologically unified clades within our phylogenetic reconstruction of Brueelia were previously described as genera. These genera should be recognized, and the erection of several new genera should be explored. We show that four distinct ecomorphs have evolved repeatedly within the Brueelia-complex, mirroring the evolutionary history of feather-lice across the entire order. We show that lice in the Brueelia-complex, with some notable exceptions, are extremely host specific and that the host family associations and geographic distributions of these lice are significantly correlated with our understanding of their phylogenetic history. Several ecological phenomena, including phoresis, may be responsible for the macroevolutionary patterns in this diverse group.