Frost Curators' Blog

Musings and miscellanea from the Frost Entomological Museum

Friday Night Lice-Week 43 Answer

A couple weeks ago, we shared a photo of these mystery lice. Collected in Bangkok, Thailand in the 1950s, these are Hoplopleura malabarica Werneck, 1954 (Anoplura: Hoplopleuridae).

Microscopic image of two Anoplura specimens.
No longer a mystery-it’s Hoplopleura malabarica Werneck, 1944 (Anoplura: Hoplopleuridae). Photo by Emily Sandall (CC BY 2.0). Click for source.

The smooth body of these lice seems to go well with their host, Bandicota bengalensis. The original description of this lice species indicated that the lesser bandicoot was the host, though it has since been determined that they were collected on some other bandicoot species (Durden & Musser, 1994).

A bandicoot rooting around in the ground.
A bandicoot. Photo by Jules Hook (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Click for source.

The lesser bandicoot, also known as the Indian mole-rat, is common throughout heavily forested areas in Asia. This rodent can also be found throughout urban areas and considered a pest in agriculture (Khairuddin et al. 2011). Having coarse grey hairs that a louse can easily hide amongst,  it is no surprise that we have quite a few specimens collected on bandicoot hosts.

Friday Night Lice-Week 41 Answer

Last week I shared this chewing louse with you. It’s Goniodes leucurus (Emerson, 1952a), a species of chewing lice in the family Philopteridae.

Microscopic image of Goniodes leucurus.
No longer a riddle! Photo by Emily Sandall (CC BY 2.0). Click for source.

It was found on a ptarmigan, a bird in the grouse family that lives in the uppermost part of North America. These birds are brown and white, molting to completely white in the wintertime, which would also enable the lice to be camouflaged (Yuhas 2014).

Biological illustration of a ptarmigan standing on a rocky area.
A lice free ptarmigan? Or is it? Photo by Biodiveristy Heritage Library (CC BY 2.0). Click for source.

 

Friday Night Lice-Week 40 Answer

Two weeks ago, I posted this mysterious pair. They are Fahrenholzia fairchildi, Johnson 1962, commonly found on rodents in tropical climates.

A microscopic image of lice.
Fahrenholzia fairchildi Johnson, 1962 (Anoplura: Polyplacidae).

This species is unique in that it has been found with other lice of the genus Fahrenholzia on the same host. It is unusual to have different species of the same genus on the same host (Johnson 1962).  Johnson describes its defining characters to include claws of the posterior legs being almost as long as the width of the head and the lateral lobes of the eighth segment as oval in shape.

I have been curating the chewing lice in our collection, so the next episode of Friday Night Lice will likely feature one of those! Stay tuned…

Friday Night Lice-Week 40

We have a very hairy mystery on our hands-hairy as in this species has many long setae as a defining feature.

Microscopic image of two lice.
A very hairy mystery. Photo by Emily Sandall (CC BY 2.0). Click for source.

Collected on a spiny pocket mouse, Liomys salvini volcani (J. A. Allen, 1908) (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) in Santa Rosa, Boaco, Nicaragua in June 1967, these two specimens are in the same family as Week 39‘s mystery louse.

Photo of a spiny pocket mouse among some leaves.
Salvin’s spiny pocket mouse trying to camouflage itself from lice. Photo by Wildlife Wanderer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Click for source.

Do you have any idea of the species of these mystery lice? If you do, please comment. The mystery will be solved next week!

Friday Night Lice-Week 39 Answer

Introducing last week’s mystery louse, Haemodipsus ventricosus (Denny, 1842) (Anoplura: Polyplacidae)! This species is commonly found on wild and domesticated rabbits, with its distribution radiating from the Iberian peninsula with the spread of its host (Durden & Musser, 1994).

Microscopic image of an anoplura with a rotund body and short setae.
Haemodipsus ventricosus. Photo by Emily Sandall (CC BY 2.0). Click for source.

It appears that there have been a fair number of papers written about the ectoparasites of rabbits, including this species of lice. Observations of ectoparasites of live and skinned Australian Oryctolagus cuniculus  found that the greatest numbers of these lice were found on individuals in late winter and early spring, and that the number of their eggs found on each rabbit did not correlate with the numbers of adult lice (Shepherd & Edmonds, 1973).

A wild rabbit sitting on its haunches in the grass.
A wild European rabbit perking up at the thought of stopping the spread of lice. Photo by Hanna Knuttson (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Click for source.

These rabbits are invasive in many parts of the world, and with their high fecundity, they compete with other native herbivorous mammals. This causes many countries to create plans for inhibiting their feral populations, such as the Australian Government’s Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities (2011). Due to the number of studies on the wild rabbits in Australia, it seems that they truly have an overabundance of rabbits and a dearth of predators for them. It is certainly possible the huge number of rabbits is enabling an excess of Haemodipsus ventricosus, as they have been able to become cosmopolitan with the spread of their host (Frank et al. 2013).

Stay tuned for the 40th episode of Friday Night Lice coming soon!

Department of Entomology, in the College of Agricultural Sciences, at Penn State

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