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Phylogeny of Geomydoecus and Thomomydoecus pocket gopher lice (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) inferred from cladistic analysis of adult and first instar morphology
Author(s) -
PAGE RODERIC D. M.,
PRICE ROGER D.,
HELLENTHAL RONALD A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
systematic entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1365-3113
pISSN - 0307-6970
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3113.1995.tb00087.x
Subject(s) - biology , subgenus , cladistics , monophyly , cladogram , zoology , phylogenetics , clade , subspecies , louse , instar , taxonomy (biology) , ecology , larva , biochemistry , gene
The phylogeny for all 122 species and subspecies of chewing lice of the genera Geomydoecus and Thomomydoecus (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) hosted by pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) is estimated by a cladistic analysis of fifty‐eight morphological characters obtained from adults and first instars. The data set has considerable homoplasy, but still contains phylogenetic information. The phylogeny obtained is moderately resolved and, with some notable exceptions, supports the species complexes proposed by Hellenthal and Price over the the last two decades. The subgenera G. (Thaelerius) and T. (Thomomydoecus) are both shown to be monophyletic, but the monophly of subgenus T. (Jamespattonius) could not be confirmed, perhaps due to the lack of first‐instar data for one of its component species. The nominate subgenus of Geomydoecus may be monophyletic, but our cladogram was insufficiently resolved to corroborate this. Mapping the pocket gopher hosts onto the phylogeny reveals a consistent pattern of louse clades being restricted to particular genera or subgenera of gophers, but the history of the host‐parasite association appears complex and will require considerable effort to resolve.