THE BRITISH LICE {ANOPLURA) AND THEIR HOSTS 13 



THE BRITISH LICE {ANOPLURA) AND 



THEIR HOSTS. 1 



Compiled by Percy H. Grimshaw, F-R-S.E., F.E.S. 



Students of the Anoplura will welcome the recently- 

 published Catalogue of G. F. Ferris, for it brings the classifi- 

 cation of this interesting group of parasitic insects up to 

 date, and includes all known species, while at the same time 

 a systematic host list is given which enables anyone at a 

 glance to ascertain what anoplurid lice have been recorded 

 from any particular species of mammal. A summary of this 

 paper, modified so as to include only the British species, or 

 rather such species of Anoplura as have been observed infest- 

 ing mammals which occur in Britain, may perhaps be of 

 service to certain of our readers, especially those who have 

 not ready access to Ferris's paper. 



At the outset, it is interesting to note that since 

 the publication of Denny's " Monographia Anoplurorum 

 Britanniae" in 1842 only a single species has been added to 

 the British list, viz., Linognathus ovillus (Neumann), which 

 was recorded by W. Evans in the Proc. Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, vol. xix., p. 94 (191 3). Among the 

 species of Anoplura included in the following list are four 

 which have not yet (so far as we are aware) been found in 

 this country, but which may reasonably be expected to occur, 

 inasmuch as their recorded hosts are members of the British 

 fauna. Such are Hoplopleura longula (Neumann) and Poly- 

 plax gracilis, Fahrenholz, infesting the Harvest Mouse, 

 Micromys minutus ; Polyplax reclinala, Nitzsch, found on 

 the Common Shrew, Sorex araneus ; and Antarctophthirius 

 tricheclii (Boheman), occurring on the Walrus, Odob&nns 

 rosmarus. Since our Common Shrew is considered to belong 

 to a sub-species peculiar to these islands, it would be of 

 special interest to find an Anopluran parasite thereon, and 

 to ascertain if it were identical with that above mentioned as 

 infesting the continental forms of its host. 



1 Adapted from "A Catalogue and Host List of the Anoplura," by 

 G. F. Ferris Proc. California Acad, of Sciences (4), vol. vi., pp. 129-213 

 (May 1916). 



