Parasites on the wing; two new records of marine chewing lice (Phthiraptera) on Brown booby (Suliformes: Sulidae) from Egypt with notes on genus Pectinopygus/boobies phylogeny

Abstract

Objectives: Little studies had been done on chewing lice of marine birds in the Middle East. Through this work, parasitic chewing lice of Brown Booby Sula leucogaster (Boddaert) in the Red Sea were recorded for the first time from Egypt. Methods: One brown booby was examined for chewing lice in Giftun Island, Hurghada. A total of 27 specimens of lice were collected from this bird and phylogenetic analysis of species of genus Pectinopygus associated boobies has been done based on NCBI data. Results and conclusions: Two species of marine chewing lice were identified: Eidmanniella albescens (Piaget, 1880) and Pectinopygus sulae (Rudow, 1869); diagnostic remarks for the two identified species, measurements, and material examined were provided through the manuscript. The final phylogenetic tree indicates the monophyletic origin of Pectinopygus spp. associated with boobies and their paraphyletic relation to other species of Pectinopygus that associated with other Suliformes. Also, independence of boobies’ speciation from chewing louse of genus Pectinopygus speciation. The present work forms a small step in a long way of studying marine chewing lice of Egypt and a better understanding of marine birds/chewing lice interaction.