Lice are parasites of birds and mammals that spend their entire life cycle on the body of the host. Their close association with the host has resulted in pronounced host specificity and cospeciation in some groups. Indeed, lice are a model system used in the development of analytical methods for assessing patterns and rates of cospeciation, as well as investigations into ecological factors governing speciation. In stark contrast to other louse systems, the lice in genus Brueelia appear to show a lack of cospeciation despite a high degree of host specificity. Unfortunately, the use of Brueelia as a model is hampered by poor taxonomy. The PIs will revise the taxonomy of Brueelia, reconstruct its evolutionary history, and investigate the relative importance of co-speciation, host-switching, and host biogeography in the evolution of this hyper-diverse genus.
Data, species keys, and results from the proposed project will be disseminated in scientific publications and websites. The PIs will host a workshop on the use of interactive keys, molecular, morphological and bibliographic databases at the "International Congress on Phthiraptera", which they will co-host in Utah in 2014. The PIs will work in collaboration with the Utah Museum of Natural History to produce a "Teaching Toolbox" that uses parasites to address key biological topics. The toolbox will be deposited at the Utah Museum of Natural History and made freely available to teachers across the state of Utah.
