Light and scanning electron microscopy of an ischnoceran louse, Felicola rohani, and an amblyceran louse, Heterodoxus spiniger (Phthiraptera: Insecta) from the Indian grey mongoose, Herpestes edwardsii.

Abstract

The ischnoceran louse, Felicola rohani Werneck, 1956 is reported for the first time from India on the Indian grey mongoose - Herpestes edwardsii (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1818) and the amblyceran louse, Heterodoxus spiniger (Enderlein, 1909) is recorded for the first time from that host species. The lice were collected from freshly accidentally killed specimen of the host, preserved and kept at the Museum of Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-sea, Ganjam Odisha. Detailed morphological descriptions of the lice, based on light and scanning electron microscopy, are presented in this paper.