Louse is the common name for members of the order Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless insect. Lice are obligate parasites, living externally on warm-blooded hosts which include every species of bird and mammal, except for monotremes, pangolins, and bats. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus.
The Mallophaga are a suborder of lice, known as chewing lice, biting lice, or bird lice, containing more than 3000 species. These lice are external parasites that feed mainly on birds, although some species also feed on mammals. They infest both domestic and wild mammals and birds, and cause considerable irritation to their hosts. They have paurometabolis or incomplete metamorphosis.
The Amblycera are a large suborder of chewing lice, parasitic on both birds and mammals. The Amblycera are considered the most primitive suborder of lice.
A bird louse is any chewing louse of order Phthiraptera which parasitizes warm-blooded animals, especially birds. Bird lice may feed on feathers, skin, or blood. They have no wings, and their biting mouth parts distinguish them from true lice, which suck blood.
The snow partridge is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae found widely distributed across the high-altitude Himalayan regions of India, Pakistan, Nepal and China. It is the only species within its genus, and within the tribe Lerwini, and is thought to be the most basal member of the subfamily Phasianinae. The species is found in alpine pastures and open hillside above the treeline but not in as bare rocky terrain as the Himalayan snowcock and is not as wary as that species. Males and females look similar in plumage but males have a spur on their tarsus.
Menoponidae is a monophyletic family of lice in the suborder/order of chewing lice, Amblycera, often referred to as the chicken body louse family. They are ectoparasites of a wide range of birds including chickens, which makes them important to understand for veterinary science and for human health. However, Menoponidae are not exclusive to poultry and are common parasites for migratory birds, with more and more species being discovered every year.
The russet sparrow, also called the cinnamon or cinnamon tree sparrow, is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. A chunky little seed-eating bird with a thick bill, it has a body length of 14 to 15 cm (5.5–5.9 in). Its plumage is mainly warm rufous above and grey below. It exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the plumage of both sexes patterned similarly to that of the corresponding sex of house sparrow. Its vocalisations are sweet and musical chirps, which when strung together form a song.
The genus Orius consists of omnivorous bugs in the family Anthocoridae. Adults are 2–5 mm long and feed mostly on smaller insects, larva and eggs, such as spider mites, thrips, jumping plant lice, and white fly, but will also feed on pollen and vascular sap.
Rhopalosiphum is a genus of aphid of the family Aphididae that includes 16 species worldwide. Apart from sucking the phloem of host plants and thereby being treated in agriculture as pests, some species are vectors for viral pathogens.
Columbicola extinctus, also known as the passenger pigeon chewing louse, is an extant species of phtilopterid louse that was once believed to have been extinct with its only known host, the passenger pigeon, prior to its rediscovery living on band-tailed pigeons. Like other members of the genus Columbicola, the insect is a long, slender louse that shows marked sexual dimorphism in the antennae, as the male's are much longer than those of the female in the third segment. It is between 2.15 and 2.47 mm long overall. The male's head is between 0.52 and 0.59 mm long and broadens to form a slight shoulder at the anterior plate. The female's head is slightly largely at 0.53 to 0.64 mm. The thorax has two very long setae on each side. The generic name Columbicola comes from the Latin words columba, "dove," and -cola, "inhabitant," in reference to the genus's primary hosts.
The Ricinidae are a family of a larger group Amblycera of the chewing lice. Most commonly they are ectoparasites of birds. The family includes the genus Ricinus.
Ricinus vaderi is a species of chewing lice which parasitises the calandra lark in Azerbaijan. It is a member of Ricinus, the largest genus of chewing lice found parasitizing Passeriformes.
Strigiphilus is a genus of chewing louse in the suborder Ischnocera. It was circumscribed in 1910 by Eric Mjöberg.
Colpocephalum is a genus of chewing louse. Christian Ludwig Nitzsch named the genus in 1818. The Plenary Powers of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature selected Colpocephalum zebraBurmeister, 1838 as its type species in the 1950s. There are approximately 135 species in this genus, and they are ectoparasites of birds in at least a dozen different orders.
Colpocephalum californici, the California condor louse, was a species of chewing louse which parasitized the critically endangered California condor. It became extinct when the remaining California condors were deloused and treated with pesticides during a captive breeding program.
Rallicola is a genus of chewing louse. It is an ectoparasite of rails and other birds. It was named by Thomas Harvey Johnston and Launcelot Harrison in 1911. There are two subgenera aside from the nominotypical subgenus: Aptericola, whose species are found on kiwi birds, and Huiacola, a monospecific subgenus consisting of Rallicola extinctus, once found on the huia.
Apterygon is a genus of louse. It is endemic to New Zealand and is an ectoparasite of kiwi birds (Apteryx). Theresa Clay circumscribed the genus in 1961. In 1947, she had referred to this genus as "New Genus D", but it was not formally named as she needed to confirm the host of her specimen as well as additional material.
Harrison's rule is an observation in evolutionary biology by Launcelot Harrison which states that in comparisons across closely related species, host and parasite body sizes tend to covary positively.
Rhabdopterus weisei is a species of leaf beetle. It is found in North America. It was originally described under the name Colaspis subaenea by the American entomologist Charles Frederic August Schaeffer in 1919. However, this name was already used for a species described by Martin Jacoby in 1890, so Schaeffer renamed his species to Colaspis weisei the following year. It was later moved to the genus Rhabdopterus by Herbert Spencer Barber in 1943.
Myrsidea is a genus of lice belonging to the family Menoponidae. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution.
