Family BOOPIIDAE

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Family BOOPIIDAE

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S.C. Barker Department of Parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Introduction

The Boopiidae Mjöberg, 1910 comprise 51 species in six genera. All but one species, Therodoxus oweni Clay, 1971, infest marsupials. Therodoxus oweni has been recorded from the cassowary in Papua New Guinea but has not yet been recorded from Australian cassowaries. Forty-seven species of Boopiidae occur in Australia; the remaining four species occur in New Guinea. Calaby & Murray's (1991) key allows Boopiidae to be distinguished from the other lice found in Australia.

Host-specificity in the family is generally high with one spectacular exception: Heterodoxus spiniger from the Agile Wallaby, Macropus agilis (Gould), has switched to dingoes and domestic dogs and then to other canids and to felines around the world. Moreover, it appears that H. spiniger has displaced the dog louse Trichodectes canis (De Geer) from some parts of its former geographic range.

The known Boopiidae infest kangaroos and their relatives (Macropodoidea) predominantly, but are also found on carnivorous marsupials (Dasyuroidea), bandicoots (Perameloidea) and wombats (Vombatoidea). Notably, Boopiidae are apparently absent from possums and gliders, and the koala (see Barker 1994).

Some species of Boopiidae infest only one host; others infest a number of different species of hosts, e.g. Heterodoxus insularis infests four different species of rock-wallaby (Petrogale spp.). Invariably, however, only one species of louse occurs on any one host individual. Indeed, there is only one record of two species of boopiid lice from a single host individual: Heterodoxus macropus Le Souëf & Bullen and Latumcephalum sp. from the Agile Wallaby Macropus agilis (Barker, unpublished data). That only one species generally infests an individual host, even when that species may be atypical for that host (see Barker & Close 1990), is consistent with (but not proof of) competitive exclusion among species of lice, at least in the Heterodoxus octoseriatus Kéler group.

As is true for most lice, the geographic ranges of species of Boopiidae are poorly known. Indeed, for most species there are only a handful of published records. One exception is the 11 species of the Heterodoxus octoseriatus group from rock-wallabies, Petrogale spp. (Barker & Close 1990). The geographic and host ranges of these species have been mapped in detail; particular attention was paid to areas where the geographic ranges of species of host that were infested with different species of lice abutted. This study revealed that given the opportunity, species of lice may switch to closely related hosts.

The Boopiidae were thought be the sister group of the Trimenoponidae that infest marsupials in South and Central America. This, however, is apparently incorrect and the idea seems to have arisen from the fact that both groups of lice infest marsupials (see Barker 1994). Clay (1970) cited apomorphies that indicate a sister-group relationship between the Boopiidae and the Menoponidae that infest birds exclusively.