THE TAXONOMY AND HOST KELATIONSHIPS OF THE 

 BITING LICE OF THE GENERA DENNYUS AND 

 EUREUM, INCLUDING THE DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW 

 GENUS, SUBGENUS, AND FOUR NEW SPECIES 



By H. E. EwiNG 



Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



The Mallophagan genera Dennyus and Eureum are of particular 

 interest to those who use the host-parasite method of attack in their 

 studies of the phylogeny of either the hosts or the parasites. Species 

 of the two genera infest swifts and swallows, hosts of similar habits 

 but presumably of no phylogenetic unity. Yet in the past species 

 from both types of bird hosts have been placed in both genera. 



Harrison (1916) in his catalogue contributed much toward clarify- 

 ing the synonymy of the species of Dennyus. He listed as valid six 

 species of the genus. He also listed four other species, three from 

 Micropus apus and one from Aeronautes melanoleucus as being 

 synonyms. Of Harrison's six valid species all but one of them come 

 from swifts. This one, D. latifrons Carriker and Shull, was taken 

 from a bank swallow. 



The genus Dennyus has for its type the Nitzschia hurmeisteri of 

 Denny. The generic name Nitzschia Denny (1842), being pre- 

 occupied by Nitzschia Baer (1827), is superseded by Dennyus, a 

 name proposed by Neumann in 1906. The species hurmeisferi Denny 

 was taken from the same host, Micropus (Cypselus) apus, as trun- 

 catus Olfers and is, according to Harrison, a synonym of the latter 

 species. 



But this type host of the type species of Dennyus is also the 

 type host of the type species of Euremn Nitzsch! But the type 

 species of Eweum, E. cimicoides Nitzsch (fig. 5), is a very distinc- 

 tive one and could not be confused with truncatus Olfers from the 

 same host. E. cimicoides is a very large and very broad louse and 

 to the unaided eye does suggest a bedbug, as its name indicates. 

 D truncatus, on the other hand, is a slender species. 



Included also in Eureum Nitzsch besides the type species is an- 

 other, E. malleus Nitzsch, which comes from a swallow, not a swift. 

 The writer has not seen this second species, but has studied a simi- 

 lar one taken from an American swallow, the purple martin. 



No. 2843.— Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, Vol. 77, Art. £0 



2606—30 1 1 



