INTRODUCTION 



The first mention of Mallophaga in the United States seems to have 

 been by Dr. W. I. Burnett (1852) in an abstract of a paper, on the ex- 

 ternal parasites of warm-blooded animals, presented before the Boston 

 Society of Natural History. He stated: 



that although there are single species 



peculiar to particular animals, there are 

 others which are found in different species 

 of the same genus, as is the case in the 

 parasites living on birds of the genus Larus 

 (Gulls) and the diurnal birds of prey. 



The first species of Mallophaga determined in the United States 

 from a North American bird was Doaophorus huteonis, (now Craspedor- 

 rhynchus) , by A. S. Packard, Jr. from Buteo lineatus (Gmelin) in the 

 year 1870. In the same paper he described Philopterus hamatus (Packard) 

 and Ricinus thoraaicus (Packard) both from Pleatophenax nivalis (Linn.) 

 and Actomithophilus lavi (Packard) from Larus marinus Linn. 



In 1878 Joseph Leidy, the famed parasitologist who identified 

 Trichinella spiralis in hog muscle, described Piagetiella perale 

 (Leidy) from Peleaanus erythrorhynohos Gemlin. It is interesting to 

 note that this mallophagan is not one of the commonly found types of 

 lice which feed on the feathers of its host, but one which lives in- 

 side the pouch of the pelican feeding on salivary secretions and blood. 



Osborn in 1890 described Saemundssonia phaetona from Phaeton 

 aethereus Linn, and in 1891 he described Geomydoecus geomydis from the 

 Plains Pocket Gopher, Geomys bursarius (Shaw). 



However, the real beginnings of Mallophaga taxonomy in the United 

 States began in 1896. In that year three indispensable publications 

 appeared; New Mallophaga I and II, by Vernon L. Kellogg, and Insects 

 Affecting Domestic Animals , by Herbert Osborn. Kellogg's work is the 

 first large systematic treatment of the Mallophaga to appear in America. 

 Part III of New Mallophaga appeared in 1899, along with the first ex- 

 tensive treatment of the anatomy of the Mallophaga by R. E. Snodgrass. 



In the twentieth century, M. A. Carriker, Jr. (1902) published his 

 first paper on Mallophaga and continued working, mainly on Neotropical 

 species until his death in 1965. At the present time, the most active 

 workers in this country are Edwards, Emerson, Price, Tuff, and Ward. 



In an early publication, Peters (1928) listed 94 species of 

 Mallophaga from 114 species of birds in Ohio. Three years later Geist 

 (1931) added 21 additional species of Mallophaga. Peters (1936) pub- 

 lished a list of bird ectoparasites from the states east of the 

 Mississippi. The only acceptable state list of Mallophaga is from 

 North Carolina (Brimley, 1938, Supplements, 1942, 1950). 



The publications such as A Check List of the Genera and Species of 

 Mallophaga by G. H. E. Hopkins and Theresa Clay (1952), British Museum 



