Differences in speciation progress in feather mites (Analgoidea) inhabiting the same host: the case of Zachvatkinia and Alloptes living on arctic and long-tailed skuas.

ABSTRACT: Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed that some apparently oligoxenous feather mite species are in fact monoxenous cryptic species with little morphological differentiation. In this study we analyzed two species, Zachvatkinia isolata (Avenzoariidae) and Alloptes (Sternalloptes) stercorarii (Alloptidae) which prefer different parts of the plumage of two sister species of birds: arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) and long-tailed skua (S. longicaudus) breeding on tundra in the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Given that there are no reports about hybridization events between the host species, we expected that both skuas would have a species-specific acarofauna. The genetic distances among DNA-barcode sequences (COI and 28S rDNA), phylogenetic tree topologies, and haplot

SUBMITTER: Dabert M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4274374 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature