Global associations between birds and vane-dwelling feather mites

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Ecology
• Arthropod-Host Interactions
• Biodiversity Science

Background:

• Birds host diverse symbiotic organisms, including numerous feather mite species.
• Understanding bird-feather mite associations is key to evolutionary ecology but lacks centralized data.
• Existing research is fragmented, hindering global ecological and evolutionary analyses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create the most extensive dataset of bird-feather mite associations globally.
• To facilitate macroecological and evolutionary analyses of these host-symbiont networks.
• To provide a structured metadata file for the compiled data.

Main Methods:

• Compiled data from 493 published sources (1882-2015).
• Included 12,036 records of 1,887 feather mite species on 2,234 bird species across 147 countries.
• Focused on mites on flight feathers, excluding those in quills, on skin, or downy feathers.

Main Results:

• The dataset represents the most comprehensive compilation of bird-feather mite associations to date.
• While most continents and bird families are represented, a significant majority of bird species remain unexplored for feather mites.
• The data enable global macroecological analyses, including ecological network analyses.

Conclusions:

• This dataset is a vital resource for advancing the study of bird-feather mite ecology and evolution.
• Significant gaps in knowledge remain, highlighting numerous opportunities for future research.
• The compiled data will support large-scale analyses of host-symbiont relationships.