Specimen image via iDigBio · BY-NC-SA
Mallophaga
Sign in to saveAlso known as biting lice, chewing lice, bird lice, avian lice
The Mallophaga are a possibly paraphyletic section of lice, known as chewing lice, biting lice, or bird lice, containing more than 3000 species. These lice are external parasites that feed mainly on birds, although some species also feed on mammals. They infest both domestic and wild mammals and birds, and cause considerable irritation to their hosts. They have paurometabolis or incomplete metamorphosis.
Species
chewing lice
Suborder
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderPhthiraptera
via
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 89
- With media
- 78
- Collections
- DMNS, MSB, BROW, NMU, BYU
- Recorded in
- United States, Canada, Russia
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Phthiraptera
- Image
- Felicola subrostris.jpg
Show 1 more fact
- taxon name
- Mallophaga
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Characteristics
- Lifecycle
- Taxonomy
- References
The Mallophaga are a possibly paraphyletic section of lice, known as chewing lice, biting lice, or bird lice, containing more than 3000 species. These lice are external parasites that feed mainly on birds, although some species also feed on mammals. They infest both domestic and wild mammals and birds, and cause considerable irritation to their hosts. They have paurometabolis or incomplete metamorphosis.
==Characteristics== About 3000 species of Mallophaga are in the world. They are easily identifiable by their heads, which are wider than their prothoraces. Species that feed on birds usually have two claws at the tip of each tarsus, while those that feed on mammals usually have only one claw.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mallophaga” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.