Phylogenetics and population genetics of the louse fly, Lipoptena mazamae from Arkansas, US

Deer keds (Lipoptena mazamae Rondani) infest ungulates such as white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, and harbor pathogens such as Anaplasmosa and Bartonella schoenbuchensis. Population genetic structure of thirty L. mazamae keds collected from white-tailed deer in four Arkansas counties was examined using DNA sequences of a 259 bp region of the mitochondrial DNA rRNA 16S gene. Of the 259 nucleotide characters, 33 were variable, and six haplotypes were identified. Two haplotypes occurred only once (haplotype 3 and 4), while two other haplotypes occurred in 43% (haplotype 1) and 40% (haplotype 6) of the samples. Phylogenetic relationships of the six L. mazamae haplotypes were constructed with other Hippoboscid and Glossinid samples and two clades resulted. Clade 1 was located in the north and western Ozarks while clade 2 was found in the northern and eastern Ozarks. Our results indicate that Lipoptena may be a polyphyletic genus; consequently, more research into genetic variation within this genus is necessary.