Last week’s louse, specimen PSUC_FEM 10005517, was an undetermined species of Pedicinus (Anoplura: Pedicinidae), which was collected off an undetermined guenon, Cercopithicus sp. (Primates: Cercopithecidae), near Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Wikipedia page for Cercopithecus suggests there might be as many as 10 species of guenon in the area where our louse was collected—so which of these monkeys was the host for our louse? In order to make an educated guess I consulted Durden & Musser’s (1994) book on the hosts of sucking lice.
Of the potential Cercopithecus species, no lice have ever been collected from C. kandti, C. hamlyni, C. lhoesti, C. wolfi, C. denti, C. pogonius, C. albogularis, and C. doggetti. Maybe our specimens came from one of those monkeys and represent a new host record or even a new species! Alternatively we might be looking at Pedicinus ferrisi Kuhn and Ludwig, 1965 from Cercopithecus ascanius or P. patas (Fahrenholz, 1916) from C. ascanius or C. mitis.
Too bad the host species was never determined! Perhaps there are some field notes somewhere that could shed light on this collecting event …
Reference:
Durden LA, Musser GG (1994) The mammalian hosts of the sucking lice (Anoplura) of the world: a host-parasite list. Bulletin of the Society for Vector Ecology, 19, 130–168.