title: Global associations between birds and vane-dwelling feather mites.
abstract: Understanding host-symbiont networks is a major question in evolutionary ecology. Birds host a great diversity of endo- and ectosymbiotic organisms, with feather mites (Arachnida: Acariformes: Analgoidea, Pterolichoidea) being among the most diverse of avian symbionts. A global approach to the ecology and evolution of bird-feather-mite associations has been hampered because of the absence of a centralized data repository. Here we present the most extensive data set of associations between feather mites and birds. Data include 12 036 records of 1887 feather mite species located on the flight feathers of 2234 bird species from 147 countries. Feather mites typically located inside quills, on the skin, or on downy body feathers are not included. Data were extracted from 493 published sources dating from 1882 to 2015. Data exploration shows that although most continents and bird families are represented, most bird species remain unexplored for feather mites. Nevertheless, this is the most comprehensive data set available for enabling global macroecological analyses of feather mites and their hosts, such as ecological network analyses. This metadata file outlines the structure of these data and provides primary references for all records used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio, s/n, Isla de la Cartuja, Sevilla, 41092, Spain.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doña
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Proctor
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Embankment 1, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mironov
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio, s/n, Isla de la Cartuja, Sevilla, 41092, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio, s/n, Isla de la Cartuja, Sevilla, 41092, Spain.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jovani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D001717:Birds; D005241:Feathers / Q000469:parasitology*; D008924:Mite Infestations / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*
keywords: Acari; birds; ectoparasites; feather mites; global; host-symbiont; long-term data; macroecology