New taxa, new synonymies and new host records in the louse genus Halipeurus (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Philopteridae) parasitic on petrels (Aves: Procellariiformes)

Abstract

I describe and illustrate five new species of chewing lice in the genus Halipeurus, parasitic on petrels from the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. They are: Halipeurus confusus n. sp. from Pterodroma nigripennis; H. pricei n. sp. from Pterodroma brevipes and Pt. leucoptera; H. atlanticus n. sp. from Pterodroma cahow and Pt. madeira; H. pelagodromae n. sp. from five subspecies of Pelagodroma marina; and H. vincesmithi n. sp. from Oceanodroma matsudairae. I discuss the morphological similarities of the currently recognised subgenera of Halipeurus and propose to synonymise them—Synnautes Thompson, 1936 and Anamias Timmermann, 1965—under the nominate subgenus. I propose two new synonymies at species level: Halipeurus sawadai Nakagawa, 1959 and Halipeurus angusticeps fosteri Edwards, 1961 both as junior synonyms of Halipeurus angusticeps (Piaget, 1880). Also, I propose to merge H. subclavus Timmermann, 1961 and Halipeurus spadix Timmermann, 1961 as subspecies of H. spadix. I report several new host-louse records for other Halipeurus species, and present additional information and illustrations for H. raphanus Timmermann, 1961, H. fallacis Timmermann, 1960, H. nesofregettae Timmermann, 1961 and H. spadix subclavus Timmermann, 1961 based on their type material and other specimens. Lectotypes of Lipeurus pelagicus Denny, 1842 and Lipeurus languidus Kellogg & Kuwana, 1902 are designated.