Myrsidea Waterston

Hellenthal, Ronald A. & Price, Roger D., 2003, The genus Myrsidea Waterston (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from bulbuls (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae), with descriptions of 16 new species, Zootaxa 354, pp. 1-20 : 2-3

Genus Myrsidea Waterston

Myrsidea Waterston 1915: 12 . Type species: Myrsidea victrix Waterston by original designation.

This genus contains 208 recognized species, primarily from hosts in the avian order Passeriformes and, to a much lesser extent, from the orders Piciformes and Apodiformes. Only 40 of these Myrsidea species are recorded from more than a single host species and, with one exception, the multiple hosts for each of these are within the same host family (Price et al. 2003).

A thorough characterization of the genus Myrsidea is given by Clay (1966). We repeat here only features that are of principal significance in defining the genus as it pertains to the pycnonotid bulbul lice.

The whole male and female terminalia are much as in Figs. 1 and 3 , respectively. Head without lateral notch or slit; inner occipital setae long, outer very short; without ventral sclerotized spinous processes; gula with heavier longer posterior pair of setae; hypopharyngeal sclerites well developed.

Thorax with pronotum having 6 long medioposterior marginal setae and 3 short setae at each lateral corner; mesonotum well defined with only 2 minute medioanterior setae adjacent to postnotum. Prosternal plate well developed, elongate, with 2 minute anterior setae; mesothorax with notum, pleura, and sternum fused to form strongly sclerotized ring; venter of femur III with brush of sparse setae.

Abdomen with undivided tergites; without anterior tergal or pleural setae; sternite I small, without setae; sternite II enlarged, with aster of 4–5 heavy setae at each lateroposterior corner and total of 17–38 additional slender setae elsewhere. Female anus oval, without inner setae; subgenital plate of fused sternites VII–IX, with lightly serrated posterior margin. Male subgenital plate of fused sternites VIII–IX; genitalia of characteristic shape ( Fig. 4 ), with spinous sac having small associated sclerite.

Sexual dimorphism is limited to males having smaller dimensions, sparser abdominal chaetotaxy, and differences associated with genitalic features at the posterior abdomen. Some females further may have gross enlargement of a metanotal or abdominal tergal plate.

In our treatment of the Myrsidea of bulbuls, we divide the lice into 3 groups of 9, 6, and 2 species, respectively. This separation is based primarily on the male genital sac sclerite and the state of development of the female metanotum or abdominal tergites. For brevity, we will not repeat the generic or group characters in discussing each species.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. 1 – 5, Myrsidea pycnonoti. 1, Dorsoventral male. 2, Ventral male terminalia. 3, Female metanotal margin and dorsoventral abdomen. 4, Male genitalia. 5, Male genital sac sclerite. 6, M. phillipsi male genital sac sclerite. 7, M. gieferi male ventral terminalia.