Myrsidea, Literak, 2017

Literak, Ivan, 2017, Where are the species limits? Morphology versus genetics in Neotropical chewing lice of the genus Myrsidea (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae), with description of three new species, Zootaxa 4324 (1), pp. 161-179 : 174

Myrsidea sp. 3

Material examined. Ex Spinus magellanicus (Vieillot, 1805) —Hooded siskin ( Fringillidae ): 4♀, 2♂, Cascay, Huanuco, Perú (9°50'S, 76°08'W), 20 & 22 Aug. 2011, I. Literak (MMBC—O. Sychra PE16–19).

Ex Sporophila nigricollis (Vieillot, 1823) —Yellow-bellied seedeater ( Thraupidae ): 1♂, Cascay, Huanuco, Perú (9°50'S, 76°08'W), 21 Aug. 2011, I. Literak (MMBC—O. Sychra PE20).

Remarks. A portion of COI gene of Myrsidea from Spinus magellanicus from Perú was sequenced (GenBank accession number KY 113129 ). Comparing this sequence with those from other species of Neotropical Myrsidea with known sequences ( Table 1), Myrsidea from S. magellanicus is highly different from all of them, with pdistance exceeding 18.2% in all cases, and the closest being Myrsidea seminuda , A/N FJ 171275 . The exception is M. serini from Agelaoides badius from Paraguay (GenBank accession number KY 113130 ). The divergence among our data of Myrsidea from Spinus magellanicus and that of M. serini is 6.6%, indicating that they could be conspecific. Curiously, considering species from other regions, the closest to our sequence of Myrsidea from S. magellanicus was that of M. textoris ex Ploceus intermedius and Ploceus velatus (A/N KF768813 and KF768815 ) from South Africa, with p-distance of only 5.3%, followed by Myrsidea sp. ex Vidua macroura (A/N DQ887256 ) from Cameroon with 7.7%. This relatively small genetic divergences lead us to leave our sample of Myrsidea from Spinus magellanicus as undetermined at the species level, at least until we re-evaluate the morphometric characteristics of this and other closely related species.