Austrophilopterus megathorax Carriker 1950

Price, Roger D. & Weckstein, Jason D., 2005, The genus Austrophilopterus Ewing (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae) from toucans, toucanets, and araçaris (Piciformes: Ramphastidae), Zootaxa 918, pp. 1-18 : 9

3. Austrophilopterus megathorax Carriker 1950 ( Fig. 8 )

Austrophilopterus megathorax Carriker 1950: 178 . Type host: " Pteroglossus didymus Sclater " = P. viridis (L.).

Material. VENEZUELA: Holotype female, El Cuyuni, Rio Cuyuni (MAC­7001; 1910). Remarks. Carriker based this new species on what he called “...a single, nearly adult, female"

or "slightly immature" female. The specimen lacks the expected pigmentation and suffers

from some distortion.

Male. Unknown.

Female. Dorsal head as in Fig. 8 . Tergal setae on II, 2; III–VII, 4; VIII, 5. Sternal setae on II–VII, 5–7. Dimensions: TW, 0.55; HL, 0.64; PW, 0.37; MW, 0.47; AWV, 0.59; TL, 1.70.

Diagnosis. The single specimen is admittedly very small in all dimensions, much smaller than any other forms of this genus from Pteroglossus or Ramphastos . Other differentiating features, except for head shape ( Fig. 8 ), given by Carriker do not hold true. However, in the absence of any male from this locality we believe it prudent to continue recognition of this as a valid species until further material is collected and studied.

This louse species was described by Carriker (1950) from P. didymus Sclater. Hopkins and Clay (1952) subsequently modified this to P. [ viridis ] didymus Sclater. Price et al. (2003) dropped the brackets and gave the host as P. viridis didymus Sclater. However, Dickinson (2003) does not recognize " didymus " as a valid taxon, but states that it is based on subadult specimens of P. inscriptus . Since P. inscriptus does not occur in Venezuela, and P. viridis does, we believe that the latter name represents the correct one for Carriker's type host. This action is further reinforced by the fact that the 6 louse specimens we have studied from P. inscriptus from Brazil are quite different from that of A. megathorax .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 8. 1 – 5, Austrophilopterus cancellosus. 1, Entire dorsoventral male. 2, Male dorsal head. 3, Male genitalia. 4, Terminal portion of male genitalia. 5, Female metanotum and dorsoventral abdomen. 6 – 7, A. flavirostris. 6, Male dorsoventral posterior abdomen. 7, Terminal portion of male genitalia. 8, A. megathorax female dorsal head.