Abstract

NEW RECORDS OF FOUR CHEWING LICE SPECIES RELATED TO FAMILY: MENOPONIDAE (MJOBERG, 1910) INFESTED SOME AQUATIC BIRDS COLLECTED FROM AL-SANAF MARSH, SOUTHERN THI-QAR PROVINCE, IRAQ

Zainab Abd-Ali Mohammad*

Abstract

A total of 30 of aquatic bird specimens belonging to three bird species were examined for the chewing lice infestation. The birds were collected from Al-Sanaf marsh southern Thi-Qar province, Iraq. five out of totally 30 (16.67%) birds were found to be infested with at least one chewing lice species for each bird. Four different species of chewing lice related to Menoponidae family have been recorded from Iraq for the first time. Actornithophilus piceus lari (Packard, 1870) isolated from Larus genei, Actornithophilus himantopi (Blagoveshtchensky, 1951) and Austromenopon himantopi (Timmermann, 1954) infested Himantopus himantopus, Colpocephalum leptopygos (Nitzsch, 1874) isolated from Plegadis falcinellus.

Keywords: Chewing lice, Menoponidae, Actornithophilus piceus lari, Actornithophilus himantopi, Austromenopon himantopi, Colpocephalum leptopygos, aquatic birds, Iraq.