Cospeciation in parasitic quill mites (Acari: Syringophilidae) and their bird hosts

This study aims to look at the relationships between passerine birds from California and Texas and their parasitic quill mites from the family Syringophilidae. Previous studies suggest that parasitic mites will evolve similarly to their host birds and that cospeciation events will be present when comparing their phylogenies. To test for cospeciation, quill mite sequences were collected from a section of cytochrome oxidase I and a section of the nuclear large-subunit 28S rRNA gene (divergent domain regions D8-D10). The sequences were used to construct the most likely molecular phylogenetic tree. This was then compared to the bird host phylogenetic tree composed from previously published avian sequence data. The two phylogenies are tested using TreeMap to determine if significant cophylogeny has occurred.