DOI: 10.5061/dryad.51c59zwhs
title: Understanding the life history characteristics of bird lice: Amblycera vs. Ischnocera

description: Permanent ectoparasites, adapted to living on their hosts, face limited
 survival abilities and food availability off the host body. We
 investigated the variance in survivability and the diet type preferences
 between bird lice from two different groups – Amblycera and Ischnocera.
 While phylogenetic or morphological data can easily separate these groups,
 the difference in their life history characteristics is poorly understood.
 We observed that ischnoceran lice showed significantly longer survival
 than amblyceran lice (p&lt;0.05) off the host body and experimental
 supplementing with host feathers further increased the survival time of
 ischnoceran lice. To examine the preference and possible effects of the
 diet, we evaluated the presence of feathers, blood, or both in 4587
 chewing lice (1418 amblyceran, and 3169 ischnoceran lice). Blood was found
 in 36% of amblyceran lice from 14 genera, and no blood was found in
 ischnoceran lice, pointing to different feeding habits between these two
 groups. Haematophagy is recorded here for the first time for the
 genera Ardeiphilus, Gruimenopon, Kurodaia, Machaerilaemus, and
 Meromenopon. Furthermore, we evaluated hypopharynx reduction as a
 potential predisposition for blood-feeding in bird lice. Amblyceran lice
 may be more sensitive to changes in microhabitat conditions than
 ischnoceran lice and in some cases, many species of Amblycera may also
 require an additional dietary source beyond bird feathers for their
 survival.
description: This study connects four separate datasets to bring a more
 comprehensive understanding of the life history characteristics of bird
 lice (<em>Amblycera </em>and
 <em>Ischnocera</em>).
description: # Understanding the life history characteristics of bird lice: Amblycera
 vs. Ischnocera
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.51c59zwhs](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.51c59zwhs) [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13350560](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13350560) ### Files and variables **Description of the data and file structure** #### **Supplementary material includes the following files:** 1.     **Supplementary Dataset S1.** Data from the first dataset (field experiments) – a list of birds evaluated for the variability in surface temperatures of different body regions (head, back, belly, underwing, and neck) and their relation to the bird’s body mass and/or their lice specimens used for survival experiment. **n/a** represents missing or uncollected values (e.g., we have not collected any lice from that specific bird host individual from which we took temperature values, or lice were not included in the experiments). The yellow background of the cell represents the same host species from which two different louse groups were collected (AN19A440 and AN19A502). A question mark represents tentative identification or information. Minimum surviving time - the least days lice survived in a particular experimental group. Maximum surviving time - the maximum recorded time of survival in a particular experimental group (in days). Average surviving time values are based on the average of minimum and maximum values. "Feather" and "without feather" designations represent if lice were supplemented in the experiment with bird feathers. [Excel file] **Supplementary Tables, Figures, and Videos can be found on Zenodo:** [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13350560](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13350560) 2.     **Supplementary Tables S1-S3.** Data from the evaluation of diet preferences. [Word doc file] **Supplementary Table S1.** The presence of feathers, blood, or both in the digestive tract of examined chewing lice (including Balát’s collection and lice collected from *Sturnus vulgaris*). A **star** symbol = for a detailed list of species see Supplementary Table S2. **Supplementary Table S2.** A list of species of bird lice evaluated for the presence of food type in their digestive tract. **1**Lice from Balát’s collection; **2**lice collected from *Sturnus vulgaris.* **Supplementary Table S3.** A list of bird lice reported here as haematophagus (blood-consuming) with a note to the type of their hypopharynx. 3.     **Supplementary Figures S1-S4.** The first dataset (field experiments). [PDF file] **Supplementary Figure S1.** **A-B** – visualizations of fumigation chamber method for collecting ectoparasites of birds. **B** – examination of the head of the bird during the fumigation process. White dots on the head feathers are louse eggs. **C** – capturing and recording louse behavior using a portable microscope camera. **Supplementary Figure S2.** The variability in surface temperatures between different body parts of bird host individuals (n = 78, except neck surface temperature, which was taken only from 11 individuals). **A** – a violin plot for visualization of individual values and their distribution. Red dots indicate the mean values and white lines indicate 95% confidence interval. **B** – Tukey HSD post hoc comparison. Horizontal lines that do not touch the vertical red line (dashed) represent significant differences (p&lt;0.5) in mean temperature. **Supplementary Figure S3.** The body mass of the bird host individuals and its relation to the surface temperature variability of different body parts of the bird hosts (n = 78, except neck surface temperature, which was taken only from 11 individuals). The **X** marks represent the mean values (field experiments). **Supplementary Figure S4.** Correlation between the body mass and surface temperatures of different body parts of the bird individuals. Values 0-0.2 (head, underwing, and neck) could be considered as very weak correlation; and 0.2-0.4 (back and belly) as weak correlation. 4.     **Supplementary Videos S1-S6.** The first dataset (field experiments). [.avi files] **Supplementary Video S1.** Recording of movement of amblyceran specimen *Myrsidea* sp. (family Menoponidae) collected from *Chlorothraupis stolzmanni* (voucher ID AN19A464) on a smooth surface of zip-lock bag. **Supplementary Video S2.** Recording of two amblyceran specimens – *Trochiloecetes* sp. and *Trochiliphagus* sp. (family Ricinidae) collected from a hummingbird *Threnetes ruckeri* (voucher ID AN19A440). **Supplementary Video S3.** Recording of a single amblyceran specimen *Trochiliphagus* sp. (family Ricinidae) collected from a hummingbird *Eutoxeres aquila*  (voucher ID AN19AX1). **Supplementary Video S4.** Recording of two *Philopterus*-like ischnoceran specimen (family Philopteridae) collected from *Saltator grossus* (voucher ID AN19A228). **Supplementary Video S5.** Recording of a movement and behavior of ischnoceran specimen – *Tyranniphilopterus* sp. (family Philopteridae) collected from *Mionectes olivaceus* (voucher ID AN19A118) on a surface of human hand (skin and hairs). **Supplementary Video S6.** 40x speed recording of feeding of ischnoceran specimen – *Tyranniphilopterus* sp. (family Philopteridae) collected from *Mionectes olivaceus* (voucher ID AN19A223).