Hoplopleura kitti Kim, 1968

“ Hoplopleura diaphora Johnson, 1964 ”: 75. In part.

Hoplopleura kitti Kim, 1968: 701, figs 1–9.

Hoplopleura kitti Kim, 1968; Johnson 1972a: 227, figs 1–2, 4–5, 8–9, 12–14, 17–18.

Hoplopleura kitti Kim, 1968; Durden & Musser 1994: 28.

Type host: “ Rattus berdmorei Blyth ” = Berylmys berdmorei (Blyth, 1851) —Small white-toothed rat.

Malaysian host: “ Rattus bowersi ” = Berylmys bowersi (Anderson, 1879) .

Malaysian locality: “Maxwell’s Hill”, Bukit Larut (Perak) Peninsular Malaysia (Johnson (1972a).

Geographical distribution: Laos, Malaysia, People’s Republic of China (Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces), Thailand ((Durden & Musser 1994; Price & Graham 1997; Guo et al. 2004a,b).

Remarks: Kim (1968) described and illustrated the adult male and female, as well as the second and third nymphal instars of Hoplopleura kitti . Johnson (1972a) redescribed and illustrated the adults and all the nymphal instars. Johnson (1972a) identified specimens from Bukit Larut (Perak) as H. kitti, which were mistakenly identified as H. diaphora by Johnson (1964). This is still the only record of of H. kitti in Malaysia. Besides the type host and Berylmys bowersi, other hosts of H. kitti are Niviventer fulvescens (Gray, 1847) and Leopoldamys edwardsi (Thomas, 1882) (see Guo et al. 2004a,b; Durden & Musser 1994).

A molecular study of Hoplopleura kitti and H. akanezumi Sasa, 1950 by Dong et al. (2014a) produced evidence that fragmented mitochondrial genomes were present in two major clades of sucking lice (see also Shao et al. 2015, Jiang et al. 2013).