III. Review of the Genus Desumenopon (Mallophaga : Men- 

 oponidae) With Descriptions of Three New Forms 



In 1950, I reviewed the New World species of Amyrsidea Ewing, with 

 emphasis on the species parasitic on the avian family Cracidae and the 

 genus Odontophorus (Phasianidae). I had previously reviewed the genus 

 Menacanthus in 1946. 



This classification was followed at the suggestion of Dr. Hopkins. It 

 was against my wishes at the time, and I expressed my doubts in the 

 introduction of the 1950 paper. Up to that time I had not seen specimens 

 of Menopon ventralis Nitzsch, the type species of Amyrsidea; but in 1 954, a pair 

 of M. ventralis was secured. At once it was evident that all the species I 

 had described as Amyrsidea were not congeneric with M. ventralis and that 

 in reality two very distinct genera were represented in my material; those 

 from the avian family Cracidae represented one genus, and those from the 

 avian genus Odontophorus, the other. 



The group from the Cracidae I later called Cracimenopon. The group 

 from Odontophorus I called Desumenopon, the genus I now wish to review. 

 The correctness of this classification was confirmed by Hopkins and Clay 

 in 1955. 



Cracimenopon is not conspecific with Amyrsidea, although its affinities per- 

 haps lie in that direction. On the other hand Desumenopon is very closely 

 related to Menacanthus, the only outstanding difference between the two 

 being the absence of ventral headspines in Desumenopon. In the paper 

 describing Cracimenopon and Desumenopon full generic descriptions were 

 given, Amyrsidea was clearly redefined, and the differences between it and 

 them were given; hence, remarks regarding their characterization are not 

 repeated here. 



In my 1950 paper, three closely related forms from the avian genus 

 Odontophorus were described {Amyrsidea praegracilis, A. p. gujanensis, and A. p. 

 cumbrensis), and a fourth species, Desumenopon kyperythrus, was also described 

 at that time. Material from three additional species of Odontophorus, one 

 from Colombia, one from Ecuador, and one from Peru has now been 

 studied and found to be typical Desumenopon. In this review of all the 

 known forms, consequently, it has been necessary to revise somewhat the 

 original classification. 



Like so many genera of the Menoponidae, the differences between 



species and subspecies are often not prominent, so that the sum of various 



small differences must be very carefully considered, such as size and shape 



of head and size and shape of male genitalia, especially the movable 



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