Article

Morphological variation of chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from different skua taxa

Details

Citation

Ramli R, Cusack M, Curry GB & Furness R (2000) Morphological variation of chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from different skua taxa. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 71 (1), pp. 91-101. https://doi.org/10.1006/bijl.1999.0424

Abstract
The lice, Haffneria grandis and Saemundssonia were extracted from their hosts, skuas (Aves: Stercorariidae). Lice were extracted from dead birds by combing feathers, while lice from live birds were extracted using a delousing chamber containing chloroform vapour. Lice were measured and the data analysed by canonical discriminant analysis. Lice show variation in morphology that is useful in identifying some of these hosts. This variation is presumably due to micro-environmental pressure provided by each host. Our interpretation is that these chewing lice have evolved to be adapted to each skua taxon; different sizes and morphologies of skua taxa result in different sizes and morphologies of Haffneria grandis and Saemundssonia. (C) 2000 The Linnean Society of London.

Keywords
Parasite host interactions; skuas; coevolution; morphological variation; taxonomic indicator; ecophenotypic variation; host specific; morphometric analysis

Journal
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society: Volume 71, Issue 1

StatusPublished
Publication date30/09/2000
Publication date online14/01/2008
Date accepted by journal10/12/1999
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/25004
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
ISSN0024-4066