Morphological phylogenetic conflict in the parasitic mite family Harpirhynchidae (Acariformes: Cheyletoidea) correlates with host associations

The mite family Harpirhynchidae (Acariformes: Cheyletoidea) comprises 154 named species from 15 genera, all of which are permanent parasites of birds or snakes. We inferred the phylogeny of the family with maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian analyses for 67 ingroup and 3 outgroup species from the families Cheyletidae, Demodecidae, and Psorergatidae based on 177 morphological characters. The analyses revealed uncertainty of monophyly of the...