Philopterus

Najer, Tomas, Sychra, Oldrich, Hung, Nguyen Manh, Capek, Miroslav, Podzemny, Petr & Literak, Ivan, 2012, Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) from wild passerines (Aves: Passeriformes) in northern Vietnam, with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 3530, pp. 59-73 : 62

Philopterus sp.

Material studied. 2 males, 2 females, VIETNAM: surroundings of the tourist center and ranger station in central part of Cuc Phuong National Park, Cuc Phuong, Province of Ninh Binh (20°15' N 105°42' E), 5 February 2010, coll. I. Literak, in IEBR VAST (O. Sychra V34 and V35); 1 male, 1 female with the same data as the previous sample but in MMBC (O. Sychra V36). Seven of 12 birds examined were parasitized by Philopterus sp.

Remarks. Philopterus sp. represents the first record of a chewing louse from Niltava davidi . Our samples most likely belong to Philopterus davuricae Fedorenko & Volkov, 1977 (type host: Muscicapa dauurica Pallas, 1811 ), but the description of this species is insufficient to identify our material with certainty. The two morphological features mentioned by Fedorenko & Volkov (1977) as characteristic of P. davuricae agree with those in our specimens but, also, the same features are found in Philopterus mugimaki Fedorenko & Volkov, 1977 (type host: Ficedula mugimaki (Temminck, 1835)) . Furthermore, there is no known record of a male for either species, so our species identification would have to rely on females only, which is not satisfactory for this genus. Therefore, we regard our record of Philopterus from Niltava davidi as undetermined at the species level, because (1) we were not able to compare our specimens with the type material of Philopterus davuricae and Philopterus mugimaki , and (2) because males are needed for a reliable identification of Philopterus species.