Unless otherwise indicated or specific to the Smokies, the following summary and taxonomic data for all of this order comes from Price et al. (2003).
- The order Phthiraptera includes all parasitic
lice, including both old orders Anoplura (“sucking lice”), and Malaphaga (“chewing
lice”).
- Lice are well-adapted
to be parasites:
- wingless
- flattened
- small eyes or no eyes
- tarsi have one or two claws for grasping the host.
- small, though within a species group, lice of larger hosts are larger, a trend known as Harrison ’s Rule.
- Phthiraptera is typically divided into
4 sub-orders:
- The sub-orders Amblycera, Ischnocera, and Anoplura are represented in the Smokies.
- The sub-order Rhynchophthirina consists of three species that parasitize elephants and
African pigs. Most experts believe the closest related insect order is the Pscoptera (bark
lice and book lice), which are not parasitic.
- Lice are well-adapted
to be parasites:
- Lice are typically distributed unequally within a population of hosts, with only a few individual
hosts having heavy infections.
- Anopluran feed on blood.
- Amblyceran and Ischnoceran feed on live or dead skin, feathers, blood, and/or on other ectoparasites.
- Lice may derive nourishment from bacteria found in the lice's food supply or through symbiotic relationships with bacteria found in their guts.
- Some species have specialized mouthparts for extracting water from humid air.
- Lice harm hosts by:
- irritating them
- transmitting disease
- damaging feathers
- forcing hosts to expended time and energy preening.
- Lice are dependent on the host’s
body temperature and the humid conditions close to its body, making it difficult to live
away from their host.
- Lice avoid host preening by:
- living in parts of the host's body that are hard to preen, such as the back of the head
- their body shape
- sliding between the barbs of feathers
- moving quickly to get out of the way of beaks or claws.
- Lice travel from host to host:
- through direct contact
- through shared use of roosts, bedding, or nest holes
- by catching a ride on parasitic
hippoboscid flies, a process referred to as “phoresis”.
- Lice avoid host preening by:
- Lice are often considered fairly species-specific—each species of louse is limited to one
or a very few related species of host, though many of the new species described over the past few
decades have been described based primarily on their host relationship and not on differences in
their morphologic or genetic traits.
- Most of the specimens from the Smokies have been collected incidentally
as researchers handling birds or mammals for other purposes have noticed them (Reeves et al. 2007),
although some specimens have been removed from old museum specimens collected in the park.
- Much of the potential lice species diversity in the Park will be found in bird species passing through the Park during migration or in birds that have rarely been documented within the Park.
- As of February 2007, eggs or uncollected lice have been observed on at least five Park species of bird that have never been recorded as hosts for lice: Carolina Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Veery, Black-throated Blue Warbler, and Hooded Warbler (Price et al. 2003). These do not necessarily represent undescribed lice species or even species new to the Park.
| Photo | Suborder | Family Name | Description |
 |
Amblycera | Boopiidae | Almost all parasitize mammals (the one exception being a parasite of cassowaries). There are no records for this family in the Smokies. |
| Gyropidae | All are parasitic on mammal hosts and thus, always have only one tarsal claw per leg. There are no records for this family in the Smokies. | ||
| Laemobothriidae | A small group that all parasitize birds. There are no records for this family in the Smokies. | ||
| Menoponidae | The largest Amblyceran family parasitizes birds. They have two tarsal claws per leg, the mesonotum and metanotum are separate, they have 6 pairs of spiracles (breathing holes) in the abdomen, the first spiracle is on the third visible abdominal segment after the thorax, and the head tends to be wide relative to the thorax. | ||
| Ricinidae | All parasitize bird hosts and thus, have two tarsal claws per leg; mesonotum and metanotum fused; 6 pairs of spiracles (breathing holes) in the abdomen; head tends to be narrow, without lateral swellings. | ||
| Trimenoponidae | A small group that parasitize mammals. There are no records for this family in the Smokies. | ||
| Anoplura | Haematopinidae | “Sucking lice” parasitize mammals by feeding on blood using stylet mouthparts, which are retracted into their heads when not in use. They only have a single tarsal segment per leg and their heads are usually smaller than their prothorax. | |
| Hoplopleuridae | |||
| Linognathidae | |||
| Polyplacidae | |||
| Pthiridae | |||
 |
Ischnocera | Philopteridae | Comprised of all the bird lice as well as a two species that parasitize lemurs The lice have two tarsal claws per leg. Philopterid lice also have five antenna segments. |
| Trichodectidae | Comprised of mammalian lice and thus the lice have only one tarsal claw per leg. Trichodectid lice have three antenna segments. | ||
| Unknown | Unknown | Lice have been found on the following bird species, but have not been identified. | |
| American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) | |||
| Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica caerulescens) | |||
| Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) | |||
| Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) | |||
| Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) | |||
| Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) image | |||
| Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) | |||
| Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) | |||
| Hooded Warbler (Wilsonia citrina) | |||
| House Finch (Carpodacus mexacanus) | |||
| Pine Siskin (Carduelis pinus) | |||
| Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) | |||
| Veery (Catharus fuscescens) |
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Text:
Paul Super, 2007.
Web page:
REFERENCES
Durden, L. A. and G. G. Musser. 1994. The sucking lice (Insecta: Anoplura) of the world: A taxonomic checklist with records of mammalian hosts and geographic distributions. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 218: 1-90.
Durden, L. A. and G. G. Musser. 1994. The mammalian hosts of the sucking lice (Anoplura) of the world: A host-parasite checklist. Bulletin of the Society of Vector Ecology. 19: 130-168.
Price, R. D., R. A. Hellenthal, R. L. Palma, K. P. Johnson, and D. H. Clayton. 2003. The chewing lice: world checklist and biological overview. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication 24. x + 501 pp.
Reeves, W. K., L. A. Durden, C. M. Ritzi, K. R. Beckham, P. E. Super, and B. M. O’Connor. 2007. Ectoparasites and other ectosymbiotic arthropods of vertebrates in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Zootaxa.
