Note on Mallophaga from the Little Auk ; &c. 265 



XXXI.— Note on Mallophaga from the Little Auk or Rotchie {Alle 

 alle) ; with List of Species taken on Birds and Mammals in the 

 Forth Area. By William Evans, F.R.S.E. 



(Read 25th March 1912.) 



By the fierce easterly gale of 15th to 18th January last and succeeding 

 storms great numbers of the Little Auk — the Alle (or Mergulus) alle of 

 Ornithologists — were wrecked on the east coast of Britain. Nowhere were 

 the evidences of the disaster which overtook the birds more apparent than 

 on the shores of the Firth of Forth, where hundreds dead or in a dying- 

 condition were stranded at every tide. Taking advantage of the opportunity 

 thus offered, I examined on 26th January a number, not long dead, 

 on the beach west of North Berwick, and on the 27th a few more 

 at Dalmeny, and on both occasions found several infested with 

 Mallophagan parasites. These proved to belong to three species, re- 

 presenting as many genera, namely a Docophorus or Philopterus s.st., 1 

 a Nirmus, and a Menopon (see p. 266, Figs. 1, 2, 3). The first and second 

 were common, the third very scarce. 



1. The Docophorus.— In 1842, Denny (" Monog. Anopl. Brit.," p. 72, 

 pi. iii., f. 7) described and figured a species of Docophorus under the name 

 of D. merguli, from a single specimen taken off a Little Auk by Mr 

 Heysham of Carlisle. So far as I can see, no one has since recorded a 

 Docophorus from this bird ; and though D. merguli is included in the 

 works of Giebel ("Insecta Epizoa," 1874), and Piaget ("Les Pediculines," 

 1880), they seem to have merely utilised Denny's description. Among my 

 Mallophaga from the Little Auk there are examples of both sexes of a 

 Docophorus, which I have no doubt belong to the same species as Denny 

 had before him. His specimen was evidently a male, and while his 

 description and figure are not all that could be desired, they bring out 

 certain characteristics which are present in my specimens. The females are 

 somewhat larger than the males, but are similarly marked except that 

 the penultimate abdominal segment bears a distinct dorsal band not present 

 in the male. Compared with D. celedoxus from the Razorbill and Guillemot, 

 the shape of the clypeus — straight or slightly convex, not emarginate — 

 and of the " taches genitales " should serve to distinguish it. 



2. The Nirvmis. — The only record of a Nirmus from the Little Auk 

 that I have been able to find is from the other side of the Atlantic, 



1 See Prof. G. Neumann's, " Notes sur les Mallophages " in Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 

 xx., p. 54, 1906. 



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