Guimaraesiella Eichler, 1949

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 : 4-5

Genus Guimaraesiella Eichler, 1949

Nirmus Nitzsch, 1818: 291 (in partim).

Degeeriella Neumann, 1906: 60 (in partim).

Brueelia Kéler, 1936: 257 (in partim).

Xobugirado Eichler 1949: 13.

Allobrueelia Eichler, 1951: 36 (in partim).

Allobrueelia Eichler, 1952: 74 (near-verbatim redescription).

Allonirmus Złotorzycka, 1964: 263.

Nitzschnirmus Mey & Barker, 2014: 101.

Callaenirmus Mey, 2017: 92.

Philemoniellus Mey, 2017: 145.

Type species

Docophorus subalbicans Piaget, 1885: 6 (= Docophorus papuanus Giebel, 1879: 475, by original designation).

Geographical distribution

Global, except Antarctica.

Host associations

Widely distributed across most families of Passeriformes Linnaeus, 1758 ; some species occur on Trogoniformes American Ornithological Union, 1886.

Remarks

Based on a general impression of the head shape (“more docophoroid broad-headed” than the Br. guldum species group [= Bruelia s. str.]), Mey & Barker (2014) mention a Br. flavala species group that includes: Br. flavala , Br. cucphuongensis , and Br. wallacei Mey & Barker, 2014 , all of which are now placed in Guimaraesiella ( Gustafsson & Bush 2017) . However, Guimaraesiella parasitizing bulbuls do not form a monophyletic group within Guimaraesiella in the phylogeny of Bush et al. (2016), and we have found no morphological characters that unite the species found on bulbuls with Gu. wallacei and separate them from other species of Guimaraesiella . Thus, we here consider these species part of the “core group” of Guimaraesiella ( Gustafsson et al. 2019a) , within the subgenus Gu. ( Guimaraesiella ).

Notably, the phylogeny of Bush et al. (2016) indicates that species of Guimaraesiella from African bulbuls are more closely related to species from other African birds than they are to species from Asian bulbuls. Indeed, some of the African species of Guimaraesiella found on bulbuls are also found on passerines from different families ( Bush et al. 2016: fig. 3b, clade A-2). In contrast, Guimaraesiella from Asian bulbuls are more host-specific; they are known only from bulbuls ( Bush et al. 2016: fig. 3a, clade A-1).