Vincent S. Smith

Tales ofthe flying Earth… Background to the PhD thesis of Daniel Gustafsson

By Gilles San Martin

By Gilles San Martin

Lice - specialist parasites

Lice – adapted to their hosts

Lice – wingless, but can “hitchhike”

Lice – wingless, but can “hitchhike”

Host specific

Niche specific

Louse evolution (phylogeny)GenusFamilySuborder

3

532

3,060

1,344Mammals

Birds

Amblycera

Ischnocera

Rhyn…

Anoplura

Phthiraptera:Insecta

AvianIschnocera

GenusFamilySuborder

Phthiraptera:Insecta

Rallicolidaesensu Eichler, 1963

Esthiopteridaesensu Eichler, 1963

Carduiceps (body louse) Clay and Meinertzhagen, 1939

Lunaceps (wing louse) Clay and Meinertzhagen, 1939

Rallicolidae Quadraceptinae

Esthiopteridae

Louse evolution (phylogeny)

The Shorebirds (Charadriiformes)A truly global bird order

• High Arctic (gulls & terns / måsfåglar & tärnor)• Antarctic (sheathbills & skuas / slidnäbbar & labbar)• Seashore (e.g. many sandpipers & plovers / snäppor & pipare)• High mountains (Ibisbill, & seedsnipes / ibisnäbb & frösnäppor)• Exclusively marine (auks / alkor)• Steppes and savannahs (buttonquails & coursers / springhöns & vadarsvalor)

Ivory Gull (jomilo75) Snowy Sheathbill (D. Jensen) Golden Plover (B. Tørrissen)

Ibisbill (V. Sabharwal) Puffin (Boaworm) Three-banded Courser (S. Garvie)

Scolopaci:• Contains familiar groups of shorebirds

E.g. curlews, redshanks & allies, snipes & woodcocks & the sandpipers• Many exhibit extreme migratory behavior• Often flocks contain several species

Isolated in summerbreeding localities (highArctic or temperate zones)

Overwinter in flocks (shores of Africa, Australasia &

South America)

Nor

thS

outhbeckasiner och avvikande vadarfåglar

Comparing evolutionary histories

ShorebirdsWing-lice Body-lice

Wider significance

ShorebirdsWing-lice Body-liceMigration

routes

Wider significance

ShorebirdsWing-lice Body-liceMigration

routes

Questions?