Two new species of Brueelia Kéler, 1936 (Ischnocera, Philopteridae) parasitic on Neotropical trogons (Aves, Trogoniformes)

• Published in: ZooKeys Vol. 128; no. 128; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Valim, Michel P, Weckstein, Jason D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Brueelia; Chewing lice; Cytochrome oxidase I; Genitalia; Geographical distribution; Mitochondria; New species; Pharomachrus pavoninus; Philopteridae; Physical characteristics; Trogon viridis; trogons; Zoology; new species; Chewing lice; Brueelia; trogons; Philopteridae
• ISSN: 1313-2989; 1313-2970
• DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.128.1583

Two new species of Brueelia are described and illustrated. These new species and their type hosts are: Brueelia sueta ex Pharomachrus pavoninus (Spix, 1824), the Pavonine Quetzal and Brueelia cicchinoi ex Trogon viridis Linnaeus, the White-tailed Trogon. Both new species differ from the only Brueelia described on Trogon mexicanus by many morphological features, including those present in the male genitalia and female vulvar margin. Partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene for these two new species differ from one another by 13.6% uncorrected p-distance. Whereas Brueelia cicchinoi is only 0.3% divergent from previously published COI sequences identified as Brueelia sp. from the Mexican Trogon melanocephalus Gould, 1936 and Trogon massena Gould, 1938. We also found Brueelia cicchinoi on Trogon melanurus, Trogon collaris and Pharomachrus pavoninus. Thus Brueelia cicchinoi is found on multiple trogoniform hosts across an extremely large geographic distribution and has one of the largest number of host associations among Brueelia species.