Dale H Clayton

..Although the ecology of body and wing lice is very similar, differences in their dispersal ability may underlie these joint differences in host specificity, population genetic structure, and coevolutionary history...

..Overall, our results suggest that host defense reinforces cospeciation in birds and feather lice by preventing lice from switching between hosts of different sizes...

..6mm break significantly more often than short overhangs. Hence, stabilizing selection will favour overhangs of intermediate length. The adaptive radiation of beak morphology should be re-assessed with both feeding and preening in mind...

..To date, studies of parasite dispersal have been mainly inferential. A better understanding of the role of dispersal will require more direct data on dispersal frequency and distances...

..Thus, the efficiency of preening for ectoparasite control appears to be independent of light intensity, at least in the case of mourning doves and their feather lice...

..Our results indicate that host switching is most likely between hosts of similar body size. This finding has important implications for studies of host-parasite coevolution at both the micro- and macroevolutionary scales...

..The superior phoretic ability of wing lice may be related to morphological adaptations for life on wing feathers, compared to body feathers...

..Mandible use was a key component of attachment regardless of feather size. Attachment constraints do not appear to reinforce host specificity in this system...

..Body lice do not switch hosts, even where flies are present. Thus, differences in the coevolutionary history of wing and body lice can be explained by differences in host-switching, mediated by a member of the broader parasite community...

..Together, these results suggest that selection in this cryptic species complex reflects selection across the whole genus, and that this selection, in part, contributes to the maintenance of host specialization...

..Overall, we found that preening is effective against mobile hippoboscid flies, yet it does not eliminate them. We discuss the potential impact of preening on the transmission dynamics of blood parasites vectored by hippoboscid flies...

..The use of heated air is appealing because it is a fast, safe, nonchemical treatment. Head lice are also unlikely to evolve resistance to desiccation, which is the apparent mode of action...

..Other examples of the evolution of crypsis presumably exist among the 70,000 known species of ectoparasites that collectively represent five animal phyla...

..smithae (type host: Turtur brehmeri (Hartlaub)). Also, we provide a comprehensive checklist for the 88 known species of Columbicola (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) and their pigeon and dove hosts (Aves: Columbiformes)...

..The unanticipated effect on female survival may be explained by the fact that H. columbae also has the option of using male flies as vectors...

..In summary, hot air is an effective, safe treatment and one to which lice are unlikely to evolve resistance...

..Here we report the results of a larger scale experimental study of a single species at a single site over a single breeding season...

..fortis populations...

..These trees also revealed considerable structure with respect to biogeographic region and host clade association. These patterns indicated that switching of parasites between host clades is limited by biogeographic proximity...

..Relative rate comparisons for the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene indicate that molecular substitution occurs about 11 times faster in lice than in their avian hosts...

..Relative rate estimates also increase with model complexity, indicating that methods accounting for more multiple substitution estimate higher relative rates...

..sapiens is required to explain the occurrence of both lineages on modern H. sapiens. Such a host switch would require direct physical contact between modern and archaic forms of Homo...

..This correlation between the size of a neural structure and the sensitivity of a perceptual domain parallels a similar pattern in mammals...

..Whatever the reason, Harrison's rule does not hold in body lice, possibly because selection on body size is mediated by community-level interactions between body lice...

..Possible biological roles of the symbiont are discussed in relation to the host nutritional physiology associated with the feather-feeding lifestyle...

..Underlying differences in dispersal biology probably explain the differences in population genetic structure that we observed between Columbicola and Physconelloides...