Parasitic lice are a group of insects that feed on the skin, feathers, and blood of birds and mammals. These insects are believed to have evolved from a common ancestor within the bark lice, which live on trees and feed on lichen and fungi. However, recent evidence from DNA sequences suggests that there might have been at least two origins of parasitism in this group of insects. The goal of the proposed project is to test this idea using a wide array of DNA sequences both from the nucleus and mitochondrion by sequencing over 160 species of parasitic and bark lice and reconstructing evolutionary trees using a variety of methods. These trees will be used to reconstruct how many times parasitism arose within this group of insects. This project will also contribute to educational tools by producing species web pages for all known species of parasitic lice and bark lice (over 10,000 species and web pages total). These pages will be within the Tree of Life web project, whose goal is to have a phylogenetic tree for all life on earth and have this tree displayed over the web. A graduate student will receive training on the systematics of these groups and will contribute to the content of these web pages. Finally, by understanding how often parasitism might originate in various organisms, we can understand more about how likely host switches and the origin of new parasites and diseases might be in humans, which is an ongoing question for diseases like bird flu.
