Abstract
Simple SummarySucking lice are blood-feeding, external parasites of mammals. To date, approximately 540 species have been discovered, occurring in 830 hosts. New species are discovered every year, and the total number is estimated at 1500. The discovery of a species is associated with a detailed description of morphological characteristics. Most descriptions concern only adult specimens. The present study adds to the knowledge by characterizing nymphs of Hoplopleura affinis, a species that parasites the striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius, a common rodent in Europe and Africa. In addition, a checklist of Hoplopleura species parasitizing members of the genus Apodemus was compiled.The genus Hoplopleura is the most speciose genus of sucking lice observed parasitizing rodents and lagomorphs (pikas). Despite the fact that the majority of Anoplura are believed to be monoxenic, many species within Hoplopleura may be oligoxenic. In addition, the occurrence of more than one parasite species per host species on individuals has been confirmed. As such, a precise species identification of the parasite, especially of the nymphs, is of high significance. The study is based on the material of 245 sucking louse specimens taken from 179 individuals of the striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius collected between 2008 and 2017. The study employs scanning microscopy to provide superior quality resolution of the studied traits. The study presents the first record of the characters of the nymphal stages of H. affinis, one of the common Eurasian species of the genus. Additional aspects of the biology and the host–parasite relationship of H. affinis are presented, e.g., female, male and nymphs of lice, showing different preferences in the choice of location (topography) on the host body. In addition, a global checklist has been made of all the species of Hoplopleura found parasitizing rodents of the genus Apodemus. Generally, the ranges of the occurrence of lice of this genus coincide with the geographic distribution of typical hosts, although this has not always been confirmed by local studies.
Highlights
Sucking lice (Psocodea: Anoplura) are hematophagous and wingless parasites of placental mammals (Mammalia: Eutheria) [1]
The present study provides the first description of the nymphal stages of H. affinis from Apodemus agrarius
The issue of the correct identification of the stages of juvenile parasites is currently one of the universal problems of parasitology. This especially applies to the phases of the life cycles, where juvenile stages are the dominant group in the structure of the parasite population, or mature stages, which are usually the basis for species identification, do not occur at all
Summary
Sucking lice (Psocodea: Anoplura) are hematophagous and wingless parasites of placental mammals (Mammalia: Eutheria) [1]. Most of the species have only one host throughout their life cycle, which represents the habitat for all developmental stages (eggs, three stages of nymphs, and adults). Far [2], 532 sucking lice species have been described, and these are known to be parasites of 830 mammal species. The total number of Anoplura species is estimated to be around 1500. It is believed that the majority of lice species are associated with only one host species (63%); the remaining taxa are parasites of two or more hosts; i.e., they are oligoxenic [3]. The largest genus within the Anoplura is Hoplopleura Enderlein, 1904 (Anoplura: Hoplopleuridae), including 176 species (136 recorded up to 1994 by Durden and Musser and 40 discovered later)
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