Family MENOPONIDAE

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Family MENOPONIDAE

Compiler and date details

R.L. Palma Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand

Introduction

The Menoponidae Mjöberg, 1910 is the largest amblyceran family and include well over 600 species recorded from all orders and most families of birds. About 120 species and subspecies of menoponid lice have been recorded from Australian birds, and many more are expected to be found, especially from endemic species of Passeriformes (perching birds or songbirds) and other terrestrial birds. The Menoponidae is a family with relatively uniform morphological features but with varied ecological adaptations. Members are distinguished from other amblyceran families by a combination of character states including the presence of separate pro-, meso- and metanotum, labial palpi with five distal setae and by having the first abdominal tergum not fused with the metanotum (Clay 1970). Currently, over 70 menoponid genera and subgenera are recognised by most modern authors. Clay (1969) provided a key for the identification of about 50 of them, including 24 genera which have been recorded from Australia. Compared to ischnoceran philopterids (see Philopteridae), with which they typically share the same hosts, menoponid lice exhibit a lower level of host specificity.

Several menoponid genera are represented over more than one order of birds, the most extreme example being Colpocephalum with species found on members of 11 orders (Clay 1957). Also, many menoponid species parasitise a wide range of host species, often belonging to different genera, sometimes families or even orders. For example, Austromenopon popellus is found on all species of the host genus Procellaria and on most species of Pterodroma (Pilgrim & Palma 1982), and Menacanthus eurysternus has been recorded from at least 20 host families including well over 100 species from two bird orders (Price 1975). Ecologically, Menoponidae cover a wide spectrum of niches, with a more varied diet than the Philopteridae (Marshall 1981). Besides eating feathers, some menoponid lice (e.g. Menacanthus stramineus) feed on blood (Crutchfield & Hixson 1943). Others, like the species of Piagetiella, have become adapted to live inside the beak pouches of pelicans and cormorants feeding on blood, mucus and skin debris. Lice of certain menoponid genera (e.g. all species of Longimenopon and some of Actornithophilus) live inside the quills of wing and tail primary feathers feeding primarily upon the pith (Marshall 1981).