Ischnocera

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Paraneoptera
Superordo: Psocodea
Ordo: Phthiraptera
Subordo: Ischnocera
Familiae (4): Goniodidae - Heptapsogasteridae - Philopteridae - Trichodectidae
Name

Ischnocera Kellogg, 1896
References

Al-Ahmed, A.; Shobrak, M. & Nasser, M.G.E.-D. 2014: Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) from Red Sea gulls with new host-parasite records. Zootaxa 3790(4): 567–576. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3790.4.5 Reference page.
Smith, V.S. 2000: Basal ischnoceran louse phylogeny (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Goniodidae and Heptapsogasteridae). Systematic entomology 25(1): 73-94. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3113.2000.00095.x Reference page.

Vernacular names
Deutsch: Tierläuse
English: Chewing louse
español: Piojo masticador
français: Poux broyeurs
português: Malófago, piolho mastigador

The Ischnocera is a large superfamily of lice. They are mostly parasitic on birds, but including a large family (the Trichodectidae) parasitic on mammals. The genus Trichophilopterus is also found on mammals (lemurs), but probably belongs to the "avian Ischnocera" and represents a host switch from birds to mammals. It is a chewing louse, which feeds on the feathers and skin debris of birds. Many of the avian Ischnocera have evolved an elongated body shape. This allows them to conceal themselves between the feather shafts and avoid being dislodged during preening or flight.

The taxonomy of the group is in need of revision, as several phylogenetic studies have found the group to be paraphyletic, specifically in regards to the two major families Philopteridae and Trichodectidae. In order to resolve this, in 2020 de Moya et al. proposed retaining the majority of the species (including Philopteridae) within Ischnocera, and then moving Trichodectidae to its own grouping called Trichodectera.[2]

Ischnocera currently consists of the following families:[1]

Philopteroidea
Goniodidae
Heptapsogasteridae
Lipeuridae
Philopteridae (paraphyletic)
Trichophilopteridae
Trichodectoidea
Bovicolidae
Dasyonygidae
Trichodectidae

References

Johnson, Kevin P.; Smith, Vincent S. (2021). "Psocodea species file online, Version 5.0". Retrieved 2021-11-05.
de Moya, Robert S; Yoshizawa, Kazunori; Walden, Kimberly K O; Sweet, Andrew D; Dietrich, Christopher H; Kevin P, Johnson (2021-06-16). Buckley, Thomas (ed.). "Phylogenomics of Parasitic and Nonparasitic Lice (Insecta: Psocodea): Combining Sequence Data and Exploring Compositional Bias Solutions in Next Generation Data Sets". Systematic Biology. 70 (4): 719–738. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syaa075. ISSN 1063-5157.