Restricted Geographic Sampling Yields Low Parasitism Rates but Surprisingly Diverse Host Associations in Avian Lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) from South Texas

South Texas is a highly variable region encompassing multiple habitat types and harboring wide diversity of organisms. However, the parasite fauna in this poorly known, especially for avian ectoparasites such as lice. To better understand louse host associations Texas, we examined total 507 birds chewing Lice were morphologically identified to genus phylogenetic analysis was performed using one mitochondrial (COI) two nuclear (18S rRNA EF-1α) genes. Of examined, 69 (13.5%) parasitized by lice resulting 63 across 45 bird species, 29 which previously unrecorded. The predominant taxa encountered during study included most diverse genera, Myrsidea Brueelia. Molecular analyses revealed 21 distinct genetic lineages, 17 are associated with novel may represent new species. This represents first extensive examination relationships reveals that there still much be learned about ectoparasite New World.