2nd Place: Repeated evolution of morphological characters in ecomorphs of avian feather lice

Monday, November 14, 2022

11:18 AM – 11:30 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 301

Presenting Author(s)

Aswaj Punnath

PhD Student
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

Co-Author(s)

Stanislav Kolencik (he/him/his)

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, Nevada
KJ

Kevin P. P. Johnson

Illinois Natural History Survey
Champaign, Illinois
Avery Grant (she/her/hers)

Graduate Student
University of Nevada
Reno, Nevada
JA

Julie M. M. Allen

University of Nevada
Reno, Nevada
ES

Edward L. Stanley

Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, Florida

Chewing lice in the family Philopteridae are permanent ectoparasites that feed on the feathers of birds. The general body plan of chewing lice is closely tied to microhabitat, and the group shows repeated morphological convergence, with strong phenotypic similarities seen among distantly related species that live on specific areas — head, body, wings—of the host. Traditionally these ecomorphs have been defined with qualitative body-shape descriptions and the individual morphological structures associated with each ecomorph are less well understood. NanoCT scanning produces ultra-high-resolution volumetric datasets that allow us to visualize and quantify internal and external structures within alcohol preserved lice, facilitating the recovery of metrics unavailable with traditional slide-mounted preserved specimen analysis. Using a dataset of 165 nano CT scanned bird lice, we can provide a quantitative assessment of morphospace, identify specific character shifts associated with microhabitat specialization—including changes in the mass of mandibular adductor muscles, limb length, and head shape— and identify rate-shifts in phenotype evolution associated with host switching.