338 
MALLOPHAGA FROM MARSUPIALS. I. 
By LAUNCELOT HARRISON, B.Sc., 
Quick Laboratory , University of Cambridge, 
and T. HARVEY JOHNSTON, M.A., D.Sc., 
University of Queensland. 
(With 14 Text-figures.) 
This communication is the first of a series dealing with Mallophaga 
from Australian marsupials. We had hoped to prepare a single mono¬ 
graphic work on the Family Boop'dae, but the carrying out of this plan 
has been prevented by a variety of causes, and we think it advisable to 
publish piecemeal the notes and descriptions that we have accumulated 
during the last six years. There has of late years been a recrudescence 
of interest in the Mallophaga, and a considerable number of students are 
now investigating the group. Little has been published upon the very 
distinct family which is characteristic of Australian marsupials, and it 
is important that students of the group should have diagnoses of the 
family, sub-families, and genera, based upon an ample material, which 
includes all the known species, with a single exception, and more than 
an equal number of undescribed new forms. Such a material is at our 
disposal. Apart from our own collections, Mr A. S. Le Souef has very 
kindly transferred to us all his Mallophaga from marsupials, including 
his types. 
Some structural features, of which use is made in the diagnoses of 
the family and its lesser groups, but which are not enlarged upon in the 
descriptions of species, will be dealt with more fully in a forthcoming 
morphological work by one of us (L. H.). Host-lists, and complete 
keys to the species of Boojpia and Heterodoxus, will be included in the 
last paper of the series. 
