Taxonomy, Epidemiology, Evolution and Phylogeny of Common Ectoparasites of Vertebrates: Siphonaptera and Acari
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Phylogeny and Evolution".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2025 | Viewed by 7456
Special Issue Editors
Interests: molecular parasitology; zoonoses; infectious Disease Transmission; evolutionary parasitology; molecular entomology; fleas; Siphonaptera
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fleas (Siphonaptera) constitute a highly distinct group of holometabolous bloodsucking insects which currently include about 2600 species-level taxa belonging to 16 families and 238 genera. Some authors have argued that Siphonaptera is the most completely studied order of insects, and although this is perhaps true from a morphological classification perspective, from a phylogenetic standpoint, they have been sorely neglected as a group. Classically, the major obstacle in flea phylogeny has been their extreme morphological specialization associated with ectoparasitism, and the inability of systematics to homogenize characters adequately across flea and outgroup taxa. In the past 30 years, there have been over 3000 publications dealing with some aspects of fleas, but only a few instances of formal cladistics analysis, so in-depth and continuous studies based on molecular data are needed to clarify the unknown phylogeny of this order. In addition, recent studies have demonstrated the existence of cryptic species, phenotypic plasticity or synonym taxa within the Siphonaptera. Fleas sometimes appear to have many instances of parallel morphological evolution, likely associated with multiple invasions of similar hosts. Even recent studies have provided incongruence between molecular and morphological results, emphasizing the necessity of combining morphological, phylogenetic and molecular data in order to assess and elucidate taxonomic issues regarding Siphonaptera.
Among arthropods, Acari constitute an important component of known biodiversity and include species that exhibit wide variability in their biology and ecology. Among them are parasites, which, due to their alternating phases of free life and those associated with the hosts, are located in different links of the different trophic webs. For this reason, their sanitary importance is important as parasites in themselves and as vectors.
Prof. Dr. Antonio Zurita
Dr. Marcela Lareschi
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- parasites
- Siphonaptera
- Acari
- evolution
- phylogeny
- taxonomy
- distribution
- epidemiology
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