Columbicola clayae Tendeiro, 1960

Adams, Richard J., Price, Roger D. & Clayton, Dale H., 2005, Taxonomic revision of Old World members of the feather louse genus Columbicola (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera), including descriptions of eight new species, Journal of Natural History 39 (41), pp. 3545-3618 : 3597

Columbicola clayae Tendeiro

( Figures 158–161 ) Columbicola clayae Tendeiro 1960: 599 . Type host: Treron calvus delalandii (Bonaparte) .

Description

Male head as in Figure 158 ; APW, 0.137 –0.154 (0.146); HW, 0.28–0.30 (0.290); HL, 0.56–0.60 (0.578); HL/ HW, 1.93–2.03 (1.99); SL, 0.123 –0.132 (0.126). Thorax with PW, 0.23–0.24 (0.234); MW, 0.27–0.33 (0.308). Genitalia as in Figure 160 ; parameres unevenly curved, thickened anteriorly, medially expanded; mesosome thick, ‘‘U’’-shaped; GW, 0.123 –0.137 (0.130). TL, 2.19–2.30 (2.26). Female head as in Figure 159 ; APW, 0.142 –0.167 (0.158); HW, 0.30–0.31 (0.304); HL, 0.59–0.64 (0.626); HL/ HW, 1.90– 2.10 (2.06). Thorax with PW, 0.23–0.25 (0.244); MW, 0.31–0.35 (0.329). Ventral terminalia as in Figure 161 ; subgenital plate groove roughly pentagonal, each side of subgenital plate with 2–4 short setae (0.010). TL, 2.50–2.65 (2.58) .

Material

1 male, 5 female paratypes of C. clayae , ex T. calvus ansorgei Hartert and Goodson , Zambia (1). 4 male, 6 female paratypes of C. clayae , ex T. waalia (F. A. A. Meyer) , Yemen (1). 1 female, ex Treron ‘‘ australis ’’5 T. calvus (Temminck) , Zambia (1).

Remarks

Columbicola clayae can be identified by its distinctive genitalic structure. To date, it is the only member of this complex known to occur on either the African mainland or the Arabian Peninsula. Although Tendeiro (1960, 1965) recorded C. clayae from several subspecies of Treron ‘‘ australis ’’, both Dickinson (2003) and del Hoyo et al. (1997) split this host species into T. calvus , with many subspecies on the African mainland and Arabian Peninsula, and T. australis (L.), which is restricted to Madagascar and its neighboring islands. All records of C. clayae from T. ‘‘ australis ’’ are, in fact, from subspecies of T. calvus , and there are no known records of Columbicola from T. australis (sensu stricto). Small numbers of C. clayae were also recorded from Oena c. capensis by Tendeiro (1960) and Streptopelia s. semitorquata by Tendeiro (1965).

Figures

Figures 147–164. Columbicola harrisoni: (147) female ventral terminalia. C. reedi: (148) male dorsal head; (149) female dorsal head; (150) male genitalia; (151) female ventral terminalia. C. gourae: (152) male dorsal head; (153) male genitalia; (154) female dorsal head; (155) female ventral terminalia. C. paradoxus: (156) male dorsal head; (157) male genitalia. C. clayae: (158) male dorsal head; (159) female dorsal head; (160) male genitalia; (161) female ventral terminalia. C. davisae: (162) male dorsal head; (163) female dorsal head; (164) male genitalia.