167 
MALLOPHAGA FROM SOUTH AFRICAN BIRDS. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW GENUS (. NEOMENOPON ) AND TWO 
NEW SPECIES (MACHAERILAEMZJS PLOCEI, NEOMENOPON 
PTEROCL UR US ). 
By G. A. H. BEDFORD, F.E.S. 
(Entomologist, Veterinary Research Laboratory, Union of South Africa.) 
(With Plates XII and XIII.) 
The species herein described both belong to the family Menoponidae. One 
of these species, collected by me from a Waxbill (a passerine bird) at Onderste- 
poort, Pretoria, belongs to the genus Machaerilaemus Harrison, the other, 
taken from a Sandgrouse in the Rustenburg District, Transvaal, by Mr Powell 
together with specimens of a species of Degeeriella, I am placing in a new 
genus, for which I propose the name Neomenopon. These two new species are 
extremely interesting, in that they both possess a chitinous framework ex¬ 
tending backwards from the anterior margin of the head for the support of 
the mandibles, a structure previously only known to occur in the genus 
Eomenopon Harrison, which was established partly on account of this structure. 
A similar structure, however, also occurs in a small unidentified species of 
Menopon taken from a Little Banded Goshawk (. Astur polyzonoides) at 
Onderstepoort. This species may eventually prove to be sufficiently distinct 
in other details from the type of Menopon to warrant the founding of a new 
genus for its reception. 
j Curiously enough, both Eomenopon and Machaerilaemus were described by 
Harrison in the same paper in 1915, Eomenopon being established for the 
reception of a species found on two species of Australian Lorikeets, and 
Machaerilaemus being established for a species found on an Australian Grass- 
finch (a passerine bird). Since then Harrison has included Carriker’s Menopon 
| laticorpus, described from specimens found on an Ant-bird (Thamnophilus 
doliatus ), a passerine bird, in Costa Rica, in the genus Machaerilaemus. 
Machaerilaemus latifrons possesses a dark transverse band on the forehead, 
which is also present in both the species described here, and likewise in the 
Menopon from a hawk, but in these the bands are inconspicuous, very short, 
and are interrupted in the middle. 
