Nirmus brasiliensis Giebel, 1874

Bush, Sarah E., 2017, Morphological revision of the hyperdiverse Brueelia - complex (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Philopteridae) with new taxa, checklists and generic key, Zootaxa 4313 (1), pp. 1-443 : 318

Nirmus brasiliensis Giebel, 1874

Type host. Tangara mexicana brasiliensis (Linnaeus, 1766) — turquoise tanager.

Remarks. The first mention of this species ( Giebel, 1866: 367) only reads that it is “yellowish, without markings” (our translation). Later, Giebel (1874: 134) provided additional information with enough detail to be considered a formal description. Hence we consider the proper author and date of Nirmus brasiliensis to be Giebel, 1874. Unfortunately, even with the additional information provided by Piaget (1880: 160), the description of this species is not good enough to allow us to place it into any genera of the Brueelia -complex. Only one individual was ever collected ( Giebel, 1866: 367), but it was in the destroyed with the Halle Collection ( Clay & Hopkins 1955). Additional collections from the type host are necessary to determine the taxonomic placement of this enigmatic species.