I am currently working on obtaining the complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequence of Tinaminyssus melloi, the Pigeon nasal mite, and Ptilonyssus sairae, from the Lark sparrow. The sequenced pigeon mitochondrial DNA will be used for phylogenetic inference and subsequently compared to mitogenomes from other passerine mites. This will be used to determine the relative rates of mtDNA evolution in different mites.