Biosecurity encompasses protecting against any risk through 'biological harm', not least
being the economic impact from the spread of pest insects. Molecular diagnostic tools …

Despite 250 years of work in systematics, the majority of species remains to be identified.
Rising extinction rates and the need for increased biological monitoring lend urgency to this …

Parasites have evolved independently in numerous animal lineages, and they now make up
a considerable proportion of the biodiversity of life. Not only do they impact humans and …

Darwinian Natural Selection t is quite conceiveable," Darwin wrote in his introduction to On
the Origin of Species (1859, p. 3)" that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of …

For most, the mere mention of lice forces an immediate hand to the head and recollection of
childhood experiences with nits, medicated shampoos, and traumatic haircuts. But for a …

DNA barcoding has focused increasing attention on the use of specific regions of
mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I and II genes (COI–COII) to diagnose and delimit …

Background The parasitic sucking lice of primates are known to have undergone at least 25
million years of coevolution with their hosts. For example, chimpanzee lice and human …

Host specificity gauges the degree to which a parasite occurs in association with a single
host species. The measure is indicative of properties of the host and parasite, as well as …

Only one of the 5000 extant louse species (Phthiraptera) and no species of flea
(Siphonaptera), parasitic helminth (Platyhelminthes), parasitic nematode (Nemata), mite, or …

The idea of using nucleotide sequences as barcodes for species identification has stirred up
debates in the community of taxonomists and systematists. We argue that barcodes are …