Polyplacidae

Polyplacidae is a family of lice in the suborder Anoplura, the sucking lice. Lice in this family are known commonly as the spiny rat lice.[1] The family has a cosmopolitan distribution. As of 2010 there were 193 species.[2]

Polyplacidae
Eulinognathus denticulatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Phthiraptera
Suborder:
Anoplura
Family:
Polyplacidae

Fahrenholz, 1912
Genera

see text

These are small to medium-sized lice. They are usually sexually dimorphic. They have 5-segmented antennae and small, slender, clawed forelegs. Their middle and hindlegs may be almost equal in size, or the hindlegs may be larger.[3]

Lice in this family are parasites of many types of small mammals, including spiny rats, cavies, rabbits, hares, chinchillas, bushbabies, lemurs, squirrels, shrews, pouched rats, treeshrews, hyraxes, and Oriental dormice.[2]

Members of this family are quite variable based on its current description and molecular data suggest that the family is paraphyletic. It requires study and a revision to make the description of the family as a whole more accurate.[2]

Genera include:[4]

  • Abrocomaphthirus[3]
  • Ctenophthirus
  • Cuyana
  • Docophthirus
  • Eulinognathus
  • Fahrenholzia
  • Galeophthirus
  • Haemodipsus
  • Johnsonpthirus
  • Lagidiophthirus
  • Lemurpediculus
  • Lemurphthirus
  • Linognathoides
  • Mirophthirus
  • Neohaematopinus
  • Phthirpediculus
  • Polyplax
  • Proenderleinellus
  • Sathrax
  • Scipio
  • Typhlomyophthirus

References
  1. Classification of Phthiraptera (Anoplura). An Introduction To Entomology. Discoveries in Natural History & Exploration. University of California, Riverside.
  2. Light, J. E., et al. (2010). Evolutionary history of mammalian sucking lice (Phthiraptera: Anoplura). BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10(1), 292.
  3. Durden, L. A. & Webb, J. P. (1999). Abrocomaphthirus hoplai, a new genus and species of sucking louse from Chile and its relevance to zoogeography. Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 13(4), 447-452.
  4. Polyplacidae. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
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