Penenirmus guldum ( Ansari, 1955 )

Gustafsson, Daniel R., Najer, Tomas, Zou, Fasheng & Bush, Sarah E., 2022, The ischnoceran chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) of bulbuls (Aves: Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae), with descriptions of 18 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 800, pp. 1-88 : 74

Penenirmus guldum ( Ansari, 1955)

Sturnidoecus guldum Ansari, 1955: 59 .

Sturnidoecus guldum – Ansari 1956: 396; 1958b: 78.

Penenirmus guldum – Gustafsson & Bush 2017: 321.

Type host

Pycnonotus cafer intermedius Blyth, 1846 – red-vented bulbul.

Type locality

Pakistan, specific locality not provided.

Remarks

Ansari (1955, 1956, 1958b) described this species as new three times, but only Ansari (1958b) included enough details to be able to place this species accurately. As argued by Gustafsson & Bush (2017), this species belongs in Penenirmus Clay & Meinertzhagen, 1938, rather than Sturnidoecus Eichler, 1944. The type specimens of this species are presumed to be lost ( Naz et al. 2020), and it has never been described or illustrated in sufficient detail. It should be considered a species inquirenda. No other species of Penenirmus have been described from any species of bulbul, but the genus is widely distributed across a large range of hosts ( Price et al. 2003), and is generally poorly known, so species parasitizing bulbuls may have been overlooked. It is also possible that Ansari’s specimens constituted stragglers or contaminations. Until more red-vented bulbuls have been examined, and it has been established whether or not Pe. guldum naturally occurs on this host species, Pe. guldum should be considered a species inquirenda.