Myrsidea seminuda Eichler, 1951

Price, Roger D. & Dalgleish, Robert C., 2006, Myrsidea Waterston (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), with descriptions of 18 new species, Zootaxa 1174, pp. 1-25 : 11

Myrsidea seminuda Eichler (Figs. 13–14)

Myrsidea seminuda Eichler 1951: 53 . Type host: Thraupis palmarum (Wied) , Palm Tanager.

Female (8). Metanotum not enlarged, with 12–14 marginal setae. Abdomen (Fig. 13) with tergites I–III enlarged, I with straight posterior margin, II–III with convex margin, IV–VI smaller but with slight medioposterior convexity. Tergal setae: I, 27–38; II, 30–41; III, 31– 36; IV, 28–37; V, 33–39; VI, 29–36; VII, 27–33; VIII, 16–22. Postspiracular setae of fairly uniform lengths on III–VII, much shorter than on II and VIII. Sternal setae: II, 38–44; III– V, 29–41; VI, 25–31; VII, 15–18; VIII–IX, 18–26. Dimensions: TW, 0.45–0.47; HL, 0.31– 0.32; PW, 0.29–0.31; MW, 0.43–0.46; AWIV, 0.56–0.61; ANW, 0.18–0.20; TL, 1.48–1.59.

Male (5). Metanotum with 12–13 marginal setae. Metanotum and abdomen as in Fig. 14. Tergal setae: I, 25–29; II, 30–35; III–V, 34–42; VI, 36–39; VII, 31–33; VIII, 21–22. Postspiracular setae different from female by being longer on IV and VII. Sternal setae: II, 32–37; III, 30–42; IV, 32–41; V, 32–38; VI, 24–31; VII, 17–20; VIII, 12–17. Genital sac sclerite 0.075–0.100 long, as in Fig. 7. Dimensions: TW, 0.41–0.43; HL, 0.28–0.30; PW, 0.27–0.29; MW, 0.34–0.40; AWIV, 0.44–0.46; TL, 1.24–1.28.

Material. Ex T. palmarum , 4 females, 2 males, COSTA RICA (2 collections). Ex T. episcopus (L.), 8 females, 7 males, COSTA RICA (3 collections), TRINIDAD (1 collection).

Remarks. Eichler (1951) described M. seminuda from one male off T. palmarum . There is nothing of significance in the accompanying verbiage and only a poor generalized illustration of the male genitalia. Thus, we consider our specimens from the type host as being of this species. The female is identifiable by its large number of setae on tergite I and the abdominal tergal configuration of the male by its large number of tergal and marginal metanotal setae.