Gyropus wernecki Emerson and Price, 1975

Valim, Michel P. & Linardi, Pedro Marcos, 2008, A taxonomic catalog, including host and geographic distribution, of the species of the genus Gyropus Nitzsch (Phthiraptera: Amblycera: Gyropidae), Zootaxa 1899, pp. 1-24 : 18-19

Gyropus wernecki Emerson and Price, 1975

Gyropus wernecki Emerson and Price 1975: 4 (key to Venezuelan species), 31 (description and infestation data), fig. 75 (female habitus, dorso-ventral view and detail of the antenna), fig. 76 (male habitus, dorsoventral view), fig. 77 (female terminalia, ventral view), fig. 78 (male genitalia, dorsal view). Type locality: Venezuela, Trujillo, Santa Apolônia. Type host: Proechimys semispinosus . Holotype male, ‘allotype’ female, and several paratypes held by USNM. There are paratypes held by MBUC (see Emerson and Price 1975: 1), and we were able to find two female paratypes at MZSP, four female paratypes at FMNH, one male and one female paratype at PIPeR, three males and three females paratypes at EMEC, and one male and one female paratype at BMNH.

Emerson and Price 1981: 43, 44 (host-parasite checklist). Emerson and Price 1985: 248, figs. 6.5 A (female habitus, dorso-ventral view redrawn from Emerson and Price (1975), fig, 75), 6.5 B (male habitus, dorsoventral view redrawn from Emerson and Price (1975), fig, 76). Cicchino and Castro 1990: 322 (checklist of Gyropus species on Echimyidae ). Price et al. 2003: 29, fig. 31 (female habitus, dorso-ventral view and male genitalia, dorsal view both redrawn from Emerson and Price (1975) figs. 75 and 78), 77 (checklist).

Distribution. VENEZUELA (Apure, Barinas, Carabobo, Falcón, Lara, Monagas, Sucre, Trujillo, Yaracuy, Zulia).

Hosts. Proechimys semispinosus +, P. canicollis +, P. guyannensis +, Proechimys guairae Thomas (Echimyidae) .

Remarks. In the original description, Emerson and Price (1975: 31) cited Proechimys semispinosus from Santa Apolônia in Trujillo ( Venezuela) as the type host for G. wernecki , and designated paratypes collected on two other host species from La Paz in Zulia ( Proechimys canicollis ), Capibara in Amazonas and El Manaco in Bolívar ( Proechimys guyannensis ). The geographic range of Proechimys semispinosus ( Gardner 1983: 142; Gardner and Emmon 1984: 23) does not include localities presented by Emerson and Price (1975), and later published by Handley (1976) for Venezuelan rodents. It is likely that the rodent species found in almost all localities indicated by Emerson and Price (1975) is Proechimys guairae instead of Proechimys semispinosus . On the other hand, the individuals identified as Proechimys canicollis and Proechimys guyannensis could occur in the localities cited in Venezuela ( Patton 1987). We think it prudent to consider the type host, with its corrected name, as the only valid host species for Gyropus wernecki . It is important to stress out that: (1) there are not two species of Gyropus on the same Proechimys host species; (2) there is a species of Gyropus ( G. emersoni ), morphologically distinct from G. wernecki , on P. semispinosus in its recognized geographic area; and (3) Proechimys semispinosus does not occur in the type locality of Gyropus wernecki . Based on these aspects, it is plausible that the correct name for the type host of Gyropus wernecki is P. guairae . It is possible that P. canicollis and P. guyannensis could harbor undescribed species of Gyropus , which were equivocally considered as the same one as that found on P. guairae by Emerson and Price (1975). The detailed analysis of the male genitalia as well as the internal genital sclerites in females on samples from these two host species would test this hypothesis, since these are the main characters used to distinguish Gyropus spp. found on Amazonian Proechimys (M.P. Valim, obs. pers.).