COLUMBICOLA 



Columbicola Ewing, 1929. Manual External Parasites: 190. 



Type species: Pediculus oolumbae Linnaeus, 1758. 

 Soricella Clay and Meinertzhagen, 1937. Entomologist, 70: 276. 



Type species: Soricella stveptopeliae Clay and Meinertzhagen, 

 1937. 

 Phagopterus Freire and Duarte, 1944. Bol. Soc. Brasil. Med. Vet., 13: 

 13. 



Type species: Phagopterus columbae Freire and Duarte, 1944 (A 

 synonym of Pediculus columbae Linnaeus, 1758). 



Head long and slender; forehead with sides almost straight; 

 clypeal suture present; clypeus rounded and bearing above 2 pairs of 

 spines, the front pair being flattened and porrect and the hind pair 

 being recurved. Trabeculae small; antennae showing sexual dimorphism; 

 those of male with the 3rd segment bearing an appendage; postantennal 

 region of head slender, temples poorly developed and rounded. Pterothorax 

 rectangular and bearing a tuft of long setae on each posterolateral 

 angle. Abdomen very slender with heavily sclerotized pleural plates; 

 genital armature of male with broad basal plate, almost straight, free 

 parameres and poorly developed endomeres . 



Mallophaga of this genus parasitize birds of the order Columbif ormes . 



Columbicola columbae (Linnaeus, 1758) 



Pediculus columbae Linnaeus, 1758. Syst. Nat. ed . 10: 614. 

 Lipeurus baculus Nitzsch, 1818. Germar's Mag. Ent . , 3: 293. 

 Lipeurus antennatus Giebel, 1874. Insecta Epizoa: 213. 

 Phagopterus columbae Freire and Duarte, 1944. Bol. Soc. Brasil. 



Med. Vet., 13: 14, figs 1-3. 

 Type host: Domestic Pigeon. 



This may well be the most common mallophagan found in any collec- 

 tion and it is certainly the most thoroughly studied from a physio- 

 logical point of view. Osborn (1896) states that it is not strange 

 that it attracted the attention of early naturalists, as it occurs in 

 wonderful abundance on almost every pigeon that may be examined, and its 

 striking appearance, due to the extreme slenderness of the body, would 

 at once catch the eye of the observer. 



Specimens Host Locality Date Collector 



1 slide Domestic Pigeon Bar Harbor, Me. IX-7-1939 A.E.B. 

 1 slide " " Portland, Me. 11-10-1958 R.L.Blickle 

 1 slide " " Amherst, Mass. 11-29-1940 M.E.Smith 



(USNM) 



" " Boston, Mass. VI-19-1962 J.E.K. 

 1 slide " " Wellesley, Mass. V-6-1892 MCZ 

 1 slide " " Massachusetts 1-29-1909 MCZ 

 1 slide " " Durham, NH X-31-1962 A.H.Mason & 



W.J.Morse 



" " " " IX-21-1965 J.E.K. 



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