CHAPTER IX 



LICE OF POULTRY. THE BEDBUG 



Birds under the usual conditions of domestication are especially- 

 prone to lousiness; there are, in fact, few fowls entirely free from them. 

 Though, relative to their numbers, lice upon poultry probably do less 

 harm than the blood-sucking ticks, their rapid multiplication, and the 

 fact that they pass their entire cycle upon the bodies of their hosts, 

 make it probable that any degree of infestation will become a destruc- 

 tive nuisance. The constant annoyance due to their crawling upon 

 the skin and among the feathers, with the energy expended in the efforts 

 to be rid of them, causes fowl to droop and become ready victims to other 

 diseases commonly affecting poultry. Flesh and egg production, under 

 such conditions, must essentially be retarded to a degree commensurate 

 to the infestation. 



Young chicks are especially apt to succumb. The}^ give evidence of 

 the presence of lice by drowsiness, refusal to eat, and an emaciated 

 body. The symptoms are generally accompanied by a loss of feathers, 

 especially about the head and lower part of the neck. Chickens hatched 

 in an incubator should be free from them, and they will remain so unless 

 placed with a lousy hen or put in infested quarters. 



The head and upper part of the neck afford a protective location for 

 the lice, as they cannot here be reached by the beak. They may, how- 

 ever, especially in older birds, be found upon all parts of the body. 



The biting species with which birds are infested belong with either the 

 Philopteridse or Liotheidse, the former containing species harbored by 

 both mammals and birds, the latter lice of birds only. 



Lice of Chickens 



The Philopteridse of chickens are Goniocotes gallince, G. gigas, Lipeurus 

 caponis, and L. heterographus. 



\. Goniocotes gallince {G. hologaster). — Head broad as long; anterior 

 border rounded; angular at temples. Abdomen sac-like in outline, hav- 

 ing curved bands upon lateral l^orders of segments; transverse patches 

 in double row. General color dirty yellow. Female about 1 mm. in 

 length. 



A common species. 



2. Goniocotes gigas (G. abdominalis) . — Head rounded, circular in 

 front. Thorax narrow. Abdomen large and but slightly longer than 



