Myrsidea gieferi Hellenthal and Price

Hellenthal, Ronald A. & Price, Roger D., 2003, The genus Myrsidea Waterston (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from bulbuls (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae), with descriptions of 16 new species, Zootaxa 354, pp. 1-20 : 5-6

Myrsidea gieferi Hellenthal and Price , new species ( Fig. 7 )

Type host. Pycnonotus goiavier suluensis Mearns.

Male (15). As for M. pycnonoti , except as follows. Sternal setae: III, 8–16; VII, 14– 21; VIII, 6–11 ( Fig. 7 : arrow). Genital sac sclerite as in Fig. 6 , similar to that of M. phillipsi . Dimensions: LSVII, 0.10–0.26.

Female (17). Apparently indistinguishable from M. phillipsi .

Type material. Ex P. g. suluensis , holotype male, Tambo, Munai, Mindanao, PHIL­ IPPINES, 28 Apr.1965, 5E­2210. Paratypes, all ex P. g. suluensis in PHILIPPINES: 1 male, same except 29 Apr.1965, 5E­2212; 4 males, 2 females, Balintad, Munai, Mindanao, 6 June 1965, 5E­2204, 5E­2206, 5E­2208; 1 male, Limot, Mati Davao, Mindanao, 20 June 1965, 5E­2369.

Other material. Ex P. sinensis (Gmelin) , the Light­vented Bulbul, 11 males, 8 females, HONG KONG (10 collections), TAIWAN (4 collections).

Remarks. Myrsidea gieferi is unique in the pycnonoti group in that it is the only species for which the male sternite VIII has 6–11 (mean = 7.9) setae. Its distribution in the southern Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan places it in close proximity with the hosts for the closely­related M. phillipsi , each of these louse species having a different subspecies of P. goiavier as the type host and having different geographic distributions from those taxa with M. pycnonoti .

Etymology. This species is named for Matthew Giefer in appreciation of his tireless efforts in the preparation of our world checklist of chewing lice.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. 1 – 5, Myrsidea pycnonoti. 1, Dorsoventral male. 2, Ventral male terminalia. 3, Female metanotal margin and dorsoventral abdomen. 4, Male genitalia. 5, Male genital sac sclerite. 6, M. phillipsi male genital sac sclerite. 7, M. gieferi male ventral terminalia.