Amyrsidea minuta Emerson, 1961

Nasser, Mohamed, Al-Ahmed, Azzam, Shobrak, Mohammed & Aldryhim, Yousif, 2015, Identification key for chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) infesting the Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) with one new country record and new host record for Saudi Arabia, Turkish Journal of Zoology 39 (1), pp. 88-94 : 89-90

3.1. Amyrsidea minuta Emerson, 1961 ( Figure 1 )

Type host: Pavo cristatus L.

Specimens examined (13): (8) El-Hair 23/XII/1994 4(F), 3(M), and 1(N); (5) Riyadh 8/III/2013 3(F), 2(M).

This species is a new country record for Saudi Arabia. Amyrsidea minuta is the smallest species of the genus and is characterized by distinctive male genitalia ( Figure 2 ). This species is similar to A. afropavo Benoit, 1962 ( Scharf and Price, 1983), which parasitizes the Congo Peafowl, Afropavo congensis Chapin, but it can be distinguished from it by the highly developed hypopharyngeal sclerite and the smaller number of sternal setae on both sexes (17– 22). Additionally, the male genitalia of A. afropavo have wider epimeres.

Figures

Figure 1. Female Amyrsidea minuta. Normal image on the left and modified image on the right. The modified photo shows the effectiveness of the editing technique, showing small structures and textures of the lice more clearly than the normal one.

Figure 2. The illustrated drawing of Amyrsidea minuta male genitalia.