New Record of Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) on Guinea Fowls (Aves: Galliformes) from Sindh, Pakistan
New Record of Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) on Guinea Fowls (Aves: Galliformes) from Sindh, Pakistan
Farheen Shaikh*, Saima Naz and Nadir Ali Birmani
ABSTRACT
The chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) are parasitic insects of variety of birds belonging to the large family of Phasianidae (Aves: Galliformes). The lice have strong mandibles with biting mouth parts and develop specific host-parasite relationship. They cause acute to chronic infestation to hosts directly. These parasitic insects are the source of various diseases, like flue, and also serve as a vector of some bacteria and helminthes parasites. Presently only one type of host, guinea fowl Numida meleagris (Linnaeus, 1758) was selected and examined for parasites examination, investigation, identification, population density, means and rate of infestation of from different urban and rural localities of Sindh, Pakistan. There were 15 guinea fowl Numida meleagris (Linnaeus, 1758) were captured and brought to the Parasitological laboratory of Department of Zoology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro. The study was carried out from April 2015 –March 2016. Guinea fowls Numida meleagris (Linnaeus, 1758) were sprayed with Permathrin (Coopex powder) and ket on white paper sheets for about 32-35 minutes. The fowls were checked time to time after 2 to 3 weeks. The chewing lice were collected hand picking methods with fine brushes and preserved in 70-75% ethyl alcohol. The permanent microscopic slides with cover slips were prepared for final mounting in Canada balsam. At present 130 specimens were recovered and classified into 4 species which belongs to 3 genera. The species and their prevalence are 19.23% for Menopon gallinae (Linnaeus, 1758), 23.84% for Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsh, 1818), and 22. 30% for Menacanthus abdominalis (Piaget, 1880) which belongs to the family Menoponidae and 34.61% for Goniocotes gallinae (de Geer, 1776) which belongs to the family Philopteridae. All four species were reported first time as new host and new locality records from the study area. All species of chewing were described and compared with other related species and developed taxonomic key.
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