No. 569] ECTOPARASITES OF MAMMALS 269 



a characteristic species, Trichodectes crassus. The mar- 

 tens, weasels and ermine have also a characteristic spe- 

 cies, Trichodectes retusus, which is recorded from the 

 pine marten of Europe and northern Asia, the beech 

 marten of the same range, still another Old World mar- 

 ten, the weasel of Europe and Asia, the ermine of north 

 Europe, Asia and America, and the weasel and mink of 

 North America, in all six or seven species of Mustela and 

 Putorius of very wide geographic range. The skunks of 

 North and South America have also a characteristic 

 Mallophagan species, Trichodectes nephitidis, described 

 by Osborn from the common North American skunk. 

 Mephitis mephitica, taken in Nebraska. I have found 

 this parasite on the western skunk, M. occidentalis, in 

 California, and on M. macrura of Arizona. It has also 

 been recorded from the spotted skunk, Spilogale inter- 

 rupta, of the southern United States, Mexico and Central 

 America, and I have examples from a "skunk" of Bolivia. 

 It is also recorded from a Chilian Mustelid, (in lid is 

 quiqui, which ranges over South America from the River 

 Plate south, and from another species of Galictis in 

 Brazil. Finally, examples of this ubiquitous pest are 

 recorded from Helictis everetti from North Borneo ! The 

 last record comes from Neumann, a very careful and 

 well-informed student of the parasites, but his specimens 

 were taken from a skin in the Museum of Natural History 

 of Paris. The Old World otter, Lutra Intra, has a Tri- 

 chodectes of its own, as has also an African otter, L. 

 matschiei, and the North African Zorilla lybica. 

 Mjoberg records a species of Boopia (typical kangaroo 

 parasite genus) from Lutra prune ri of India. As the 

 record is an extraordinary one, being the only case of a 

 Boopia found outside of Australia or on a mammal other 

 than a Marsupial, it is well to note the exact circum- 

 stances of the record. The parasites (several examples) 

 were got by Mjoberg from the Hamburg Zoological Mu- 

 seum where they were ticketed as having been taken 

 from a "soeben frisch angekommenes Thier" of the 

 species Lutra pruneri, the animal having been received 



