Philopteridae

Martin, Storm Blas, Keatley, Sarah, Wallace, Alisa, Vaughan-Higgins, Rebecca J. & Ash, Amanda, 2024, A critically co-endangered feather louse Forficuloecus pezopori n. sp. (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae) detected through conservation intervention for the western ground parrot Pezoporus flaviventris (Psittaculidae), International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 24 (100931), pp. 100931-100931 : 100931-

4.1. Richness of Philopteridae from Australian parrots

Forficuloecus pezopori is the eleventh species proposed for its genus, the only louse yet known from a ground parrot (i.e., Pezoporus spp. ), and the only metazoan parasite known from P. flaviventris . Indeed, F. pezopori is the first metazoan parasite reported from any of Australia’ s six endangered parrot species. Including P. flaviventris , there are 43 extant

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and one historically extinct species of Australian parrot ( Psittaculidae ), all except one of which are, or have local subspecies which are endemic (BirdLife Australia, 2022). Parasites remain unknown from many of these parrots; substantial richness clearly remains to be discovered.

Species of Forficuloecus are known only from Australasian parrots ( Psittaculidae ) and appear to have moderate to high host-specificity. Seven of the 11 species, including F. pezopori , are known only from a single host species, two are known from multiple congeneric hosts, and two are known from hosts spanning two genera ( Price et al., 2008). No parrot species is yet known to host more than one species of Forficuloecus , however, Bourke’ s parrot Neopsephotus bourkii (Gould, 1841) is host to F. josephi as well as another philopterid Neopsittaconirmus vincesmithi Price & Johnson, 2007 , and the bluebonnet Northiella haematogaster (Gould, 1838) is likewise host to two philopterids but no known species of Forficuloecus ( Price et al., 2008; Price and Johnson, 2007). Eight of the eleven species of Forficuloecus are known from Australia, two only from New Zealand, and one only from New Guinea ( Price et al., 2008).

4.2. Host-specificity of Forficuloecus pezopori

We presume F. pezopori is specific to P. flaviventris (western ground parrot). Until recently, P. flaviventris has been considered a subspecies of P. wallicus (eastern ground parrot). Regardless of whether the western ground parrot is recognised as a distinct species, they are substantially separated geographically from the eastern ground parrot and genetic analyses suggest the two diverged prior to the Pleistocene ( Joseph et al., 2011; Murphy et al., 2011). It is therefore plausible that western and eastern ground parrots support distinct parasite fauna. A feather mite Dubininia pezopori Mironov, Ehrnsberger & Dabert, 2017 ( Sarcoptiformes : Xolalgidae ), is known from, and only from, the Tasmanian subspecies of the eastern ground parrot P. wallicus leachi Matthews, 1912 ( Mironov et al., 2017). As far as we are aware, no metazoan parasites have been reported from the mainland eastern ground parrot P. wallicus wallicus (Kerr, 1972) , nor from the only other ground parrot, the night parrot P. occidentalis (Gould, 1861) ; there is no indication that any species of Pezoporus has been substantially investigated for parasites.

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