Community interactions govern host-switching with implications for host-parasite coevolutionary history.

ABSTRACT: Reciprocal selective effects between coevolving species are often influenced by interactions with the broader ecological community. Community-level interactions may also influence macroevolutionary patterns of coevolution, such as cospeciation, but this hypothesis has received little attention. We studied two groups of ecologically similar feather lice (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) that differ in their patterns of association with a single group of hosts. The two groups, "body lice" and "wing lice," are both parasites of pigeons and doves (Columbiformes). Body lice are more host-specific and show greater population genetic structure than wing lice. The macroevolutionary history of body lice also parallels that of their columbiform hosts more closely than does the evolutionary history of wing

SUBMITTER: Harbison CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3111282 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature