Last week’s louse species was Haemodipsus lyriocephalus (Burmeister, 1839) (Anoplura: Polyplacidae). According to Durden & Musser (1994), this louse can be found on several species of hare (Lagomorpha: Leporidae: Lepus) in the Old World: L. arcticus, L. europaeus, L. sinensis, L. timidus, L. tolai.
The specimen in our posted image, PSUC_FEM 10005228, was collected off an Indian Hare, Lepus nigricollis, in Nepal, in 1967. Hmmm … does that mean we have a new record or even a new species of louse? Maybe, but a lot more research would have to be done to confirm that. And it looks like the Smithsonian has slides of this louse that were also collected off Indian Hare in Nepal. My gut tells me they are from the same series as our slides. Either way, it’s an interesting find! And a new set of host species for Friday Night Lice.