84 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



Menopon pallidum is one of the species which infest the hen. 

 This is often a pest in hen-houses. It is to free themselves from 

 this and allied parasites that hens wallow in dust and scatter it 

 among their feathers. When fowls are confined so that they cannot 

 dust themselves they are very liable to suffer from bird-lice. 



In order to protect fowls from these pests, cleanliness and the use 

 of proper insecticides are necessary. The house should be thor- 

 oughly cleaned at least twice each year, and the straw in the nests 

 burned. Sprinkling powdered sulphur in the nests, and oiling the 

 perches with kerosene, will do much to keep the lice in check. If a 

 house becomes badly jnfested it should be thoroughly white-washed, 

 and the fowls dusted with Persian insect-powder. Many writers 

 advise the use of kerosene upon infested fowls. 



There is much doubt regarding the zoological position of the Mallophaga. 

 The placing of them in the Pseudoneuroptera must be regarded as a provi- 

 sional arrangement. They were formerly classed with the true lice, but they are 

 sharply distinguished from them by the structure of their mouth-parts. Both 

 of these groups have become so degraded as the result of their parasitic habits 

 that it will be very difficult if not impossible to definitely determine their 

 places in the insect series. Certain German entomologists class together as 

 an order the Termitidae, Psocidae, and Mallophaga under the name Corrodentia. 

 But this association does not seem to me natural. 



TABLE OF GENERA OF MALLOPHAGA. 



A. Antennae filiform, three- or five-jointed ; maxillary palpi invisible. 



B. Antennae three-jointed; tarsi with a single claw. Parasites on mam- 

 mals, i. Trichodectes. 

 BB. Antennae five-jointed ; tarsi with two claws. Parasites on birds. 

 C. With movable appendages (trabiculae) on the head in front of the 

 antennae ; antennae nearly alike in both sexes. 2. Docophorus. 

 CC. Trabiculae absent, or if present not motile. 

 D. Antennae filiform, without sexual differences. 



E. Head rounded behind ; last segment in the male rounded off. 



3. Nirmus. 



EE. Head abrupt angled behind ; abdominal segments fused in the 



middle. 4. Goniocotes. 



DD. Antennae of male forcipate by a process from the third segment. 



E. Head angled behind ; terminal segments of female tubercle-like, of 



male rounded off. 5- GONIODES. 



EE. Head rounded behind ; terminal segment of male notched. 



6. LlPEURUS. 



