Family LAEMOBOTHRIIDAE

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Introduction

The Laemobothriidae Mjöberg, 1910 is a small amblyceran family comprising the single genus Laemobothrion Nitzsch, subdivided into two subgenera and about 15 species. Each subgenus is restricted to different bird orders, Laemobothrion to the Falconiformes and Eulaemobothrion Ewing to the Gruiformes and Ciconiiformes. In Australia, four species of this family have been recorded: three species of the subgenus Laemobothrion parasitising hawks, kites, falcons and eagles, and one species of the subgenus Eulaemobothrion living on the coot.

The subgenus Laemobothrion was thoroughly revised by Nelson & Price (1965). They concluded that the characters used by most authors to separate different species are merely a reflection of individual or infraspecific variation. Accordingly, they reduced a total of 49 species names to four valid and clearly recognisable species. In this regard, Nelson & Price (1965) reached the same conclusion as Clay & Hopkins (1954).

There is no equivalent study for the subgenus Eulaemobothrion. Clay & Hopkins (1960) recognised 10 nominal species, providing a key to only seven of them because they lacked adequate material of the remainder. Both Tendeiro (1963) and Lakshminarayana (1967) described one new species of Eulaemobothrion, each from different races of the Swamphen. Although two other races of this bird are widely distributed in Australia (Condon 1975), there is, as yet, no record of laemobothriid lice from them.

The Laemobothriidae are distinguished from other amblyceran families by the following combination of character states: head with a posterior area of sculpturing bearing rows of peg-like projections; labial palpi present; six pairs of spiracles; meso- and metanotum fused together; third femora and some abdominal segments with ventral patches of microtrichia; two claws on each leg (Clay 1970). The family includes the largest known lice, with the length of adult females reaching 11 mm in one species (Nelson & Price 1965).

General References

Clay, T. 1970. The Amblycera (Phthiraptera: Insecta). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 25: 73-98 5 pls

Clay, T. & Hopkins, G.H.E. 1954. The early literature on Mallophaga (part III, 1776–1786). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 3(6): 223-266 pls 10-12

Clay, T. & Hopkins, G.H.E. 1960. The early literature on Mallophaga (part IV, 1787–1818). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology 9(1): 1-61 pls 1-6

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.

Lakshminarayana, K.V. 1967. Mallophaga Indica I. On the status of Eulaemobothrion Ewing, with description of a new species from India. Oriental Insects 1(3–4): 257-264

Nelson, R.C. & Price, R.D. 1965. The Laemobothrion (Mallophaga: Laemobothriidae) of the Falconiformes. Journal of Medical Entomology 2(3): 249-257 22 figs

Tendeiro, J. 1963. Études sur les Mallophages. Observations sur trois espèces du genre Laemobothrion Nitzsch, 1818 (Ischnocera, Philopteridae [sic!]), avec description d'une nouvelle espèce, Laemobothrion (Eulaemobothrion) blagoveshtchenskyi n. sp., parasite de Porphyrio madagascariensis madagascariensis (Latham). Memórias da Junta de Investigações do Ultramar 2 43: 89-112

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