PHYLOGENY AND HOST-PARASITE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE MITE FAMILY HARPIRHYNCHIDAE (ACARI, PROSTIGMATA)

About authors:

Bochkov A. V. , Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya emb. 1, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia. Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

Sergey V. Mironov, e-mail

Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia

A. Fain, Institut royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgie, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000, Bruxelles, Belgium

Acknowledgments:

This research is supported by the Russian Foun-dation for Basic Research, Grant №97-04-48977.

Annotation:

The Reconstruction of phylogeny of the mite family Harpirhynchidae, the permanent parasites of birds, was made by the cladistic method with the software PAUP 3.0s. The cladistic analysis included the closely related family Ophioptidae, permanent parasites of the Colubridae and Elapidae snakes. Representatives of all 14 genera have been exam-ined. The predatory mite family Cheyletidae was used as the outgroup. The analysis was based on 84 morphological characters.

Single obtained cladogram includes two general clusters. One of them comprises the subfamily Harpypalpinae and the family Ophioptidae, the second cluster is represented by the subfamily Harpirhynchinae.

The node uniting the taxa Harpirhynchinae, Harpypalpinae and Ophioptidae is marked by 9 synapomorphies. Some of these apomorphies also occur in other parasitic mite families of the Chey-letoidea, however the structure of the palps in these 3 taxa is unique, and proves the monophyly of this group. Therefore we include the Ophioptidae into the family Harpirhynchidaeas a subfamily.

The cluster of the subfamily Harpirhynchinae includes 6 generic groups: 3 groups are represented by 1 genus each (Harpirhynchus, Harpyrhynchoides and Perharpyrhynchus), 2 groups include each a pair of genera — Metharpyrhynchus and Neharpyrhyn-chus, Anharpyrhynchus and Trichorhynchiella, and one group includes 3 genera Ralliharpirhynchus, Harpyrhynchiella, and Cypsharpirhynchus.

Based on the obtained cladogram two hypoth-eses of harpirhynchid mite evolution are discussed. The most probable hypothesis it is suggests, that ancestors of the Harpirhynchidae had become parasites on some ancestor of birds and coevolved with these hosts. The ancestor of Ophioptinae probably migrated from birds onto the snakes.

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