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The diversification history of highly host-specific symbionts: the case of bird feather mites Since Heinrich Fahrenholz proposed his rule back in 1913, the idea of symbionts speciating following host speciation (i.e., cospeciating) has dominated research on parasite evolutionary ecology. Recent studies, however, have shown that host-shift speciation (speciation after switching to a new host species) is almost as relevant as cospeciation in explaining symbiont diversification. The relative importance of these processes is highly variable among host-symbiont systems and ranges from strict cospeciation to extensive host-switching, according to system features such as the mode of transmission of symbionts: permanent and vertically transmitted symbionts, such as bird feather mites, belong to the extreme end of the continuum in which cospeciation alone should explain symbiont diversification. In this thesis, we have first developed tools for the study of feather mites, and we have investigated key aspects of their ecology relevant to understand their evolution. Then, with the help of this knowledge and tools, we studied the diversification history of feather mites in a macroecological context. In this talk, I will give an overview of these results and of ongoing works. Overall, I will show the unexpected relevance of host-shift speciation on the diversification history of feather mites. And, lastly, in the light of ecological fitting theory, I will discuss why host-shift speciation should no longer be considered irrelevant even for permanent and highly host-specific symbionts.

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