We’ve been at this for a few weeks now. Is that enough time for people to start making connections between morphology—i.e., how the louse looks—and its host? Maybe not, but this week’s louse looks sufficiently like one of our previous weeks’ lice that I, as a trained biologist but not an expert of Anoplura, was able to correctly guess the host mammal family.
Interesting that this group of lice lacks paratergites (see last week’s Friday Night Lice entry for an example of a louse with paratergites on the abdomen). Just what is the function of those bumps, when they’re present? Feel free to offer your guesses below in the comments! We’ll reveal the host on Monday!
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