On Friday, I shared a photo of this louse. Collected in Argentina on a tinamou, the specimen is from the suborder Ischnocera. It is Rhynchothura minuta (Carriker, 1936) (Ischnocera: Heptapogastridae)!
Lice found on tinamous are unique in that their eyes are single, vestigal, or absent. The family Heptapsogastridae is separated from all other families in the order in that the abdomen has only seven segments in both sexes. A determining characteristic of this genus is that the first pair of spiracles is found on the first segment rather than the second (Carriker, 1936). The species minuta is found on hosts residing on grasslands.
Stay tuned for a new episode of Friday Night Lice this week!
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