Паразито-хозяинные отношения клещей парвотряда Psoroptidia (Acariformes: Astigmata) с птицами

This chapter provides a review of modern concepts and hypotheses about host-parasite relationships of feather mites with birds. Feather mites, a species-rich group from the infraorder Astigmata, are highly-specialized permanent parasites of birds. This group comprises 2500 species of 36–36 families belonging to two non-sister superfamilies, Analgoidea and Pterolichoidea. Most of the feather mites, as their name suggests, inhabit various microhabitats of the plumage but mites from several families with the most derived parasitic relationships with the hosts live on the skin and in the respiratory system. General morphological adaptations of feather mites to particular microhabitats on the host body are considered. Nine morphoecotypes of feather mites, based on a complex of specific morphological adaptations to particular microhabitats, are described in detail. All morphoecotypes developed gradually within both superfamilies. Similar morphological and ecological adaptations associated with the colonisation of the same microhabitat evolved independently in the two superfamilies and even in different lineages of feather mites. Coevolutionary relationships of feather mites and birds are considered. It is shown that taxonomic components of the parasitic fauna associated with a particular order of birds may have a different origin. They could be inherited from the ancestors of the order or transferred from birds of another order and successfully settled on new hosts. Analyses of hostassociations of each currently known feather mite family on avian hosts and previous cophylogenetic studies show that almost all families display a clear phylogenetic parallelism with the corresponding taxonomic groups of hosts. At the same time, in almost all feather mite families some violations of exact pattern of phylogenetic parallelism caused by the horizontal transfers are observed.