J Arthropod-Borne Dis, June 2013, 7(1): 83–89 B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of… http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 Short Communication Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of Several Species of Wild Birds in Iran, with New Records Bilal Dik 1, *Ali Halajian 2,3 1Department of Parasitology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Selcuk, Konya, Turkey 2Department of Biodiversity, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, Sovenga, South Africa 3Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Specialized Veterinary Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran (Received 16 May 2011; accepted 25 Jun 2012) Abstract Background: Although there are about 520 species of birds in Iran, but only some of them have been checked for ectoparasites so far.The aim of this study was to check some more available species of the birds of Iran for lice. Methods: This study was performed between 2008–2010 in northern Iran. For this purpose we tried to check some of the wild bird species available and mostly not checked before to identify the lice of them.The birds were found in some of the houses of hunters keeping as trap for catching more birds, some of the bird keepers and a few dead birds from taxidermists. In this way we could check 79 birds of 6 species. Results: We identified 11 lice species on the birds and overall 15.2 % of the examined birds were infested by the lice. Nine lice species including Aquanirmus podicipis, Pseudomenopon dolium, Ardeicola sp, Ciconiphilus decimfasciatus; Menacanthus sp, Austromenopon transversum, Pectinopygus gyricornis, Colpocephalum turbinatum and Hohorstiella lata were recorded for the first time on the birds in Iran. One specimen of Menacanthus sp was found on the purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) that is a new host report for this lice. Conclusion: Although the infection rate was not very high in the birds, but 11 species of lice in 6 studied birds spe- cies in this study, shows there are still other lice species that exist in the birds and should be identified and added to Iran lice fauna list. Keywords: Lice, Birds, Iran Introduction Chewing lice (Ischnocera, Amblycera) are permanent obligate ectoparasites mostly par- asitic on bird species and they feed on feath- ers and skin scales. Although they have mouthparts designed for chewing, some of the species of Ishnocera can cause skin irri- tations and suck blood. Chewing lice have harmful effects that lead to decrease in productivity in host. There are about 4000 lice species on birds in the world (Price et al. 2003). Beside the existence of about 520 species of birds in Iran (Mansoori 2008), there are a few studies relevant to lice infes- tations and fauna in Iran (Rafyi et al. 1968, Ardalan 1971, 1975, Rak et al. 1975). Rafyi et al. (1968) detected 15 lice species (Goniodes dissimilis, Goniodes gigas (= Go- niocotes gigas), Goniocotes gallinae, Campa- nulates compar (= Goniocotes bidentatus), Lipeurus caponis, Cuclotogaster heterographus (= Lipeurus heterographus), Chelopistes me- leagridis, Columbicola columbae, Anaticola anseris Menopon gallinae, Menopon palli- dulum, Menacanthus stramineus and Trinoton anserinum) on poultry, pigeons, ducks, geese and turkeys in Iran. Ardalan (1971) added to these six lice species; Columbicola tschu- lyschman from Domestic pigeon (Columba *Corresponding author: Dr Ali Halajian, E-mail: ali_hal572002@yahoo.com 83 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, June 2013, 7(1): 83–89 B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of… http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 livia), Philopterus corvi from Raven (Corvus corax), Cuculoecus latifrons (= Philopterus latifrons) and Philopterus ocellatus from Crow (in text: Corvus corone), Cummingsiella ovalis and Saemundssonia humeralis from Curlew (Numenius arquata). Same author (Ardalan 1975) reported Quadraceps legatus from Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), Quadraceps conformis from Curlew, Laemobothrion vul- turis from Egyptian Vulture (Neophron perc- nopterus) and Myrsidea anaspila from Raven, for the first time in Iran. Eslami et al. (2009) detected five lice species (Lipeurus caponis, Menopon gallinae, Menacanthus stramineus, Goniodes ocilis and Cuclotogaster heterog- raphus) from chicken in Golestan Province, northern Iran. According to the results of the studies performed on the lice species on the birds, approximately 39 lice species have been detected in Iran, until now. This study was carried out to identify the chewing lice of some of the bird species of Iran. Materials and Methods This study was performed between 2008– 2010 in two northern provinces of Mazan- daran and Guilan, northern Iran. For this aim, seventy nine birds belonging to the six bird species (Great Crested Grebe: Podiceps cris- tatus n= 31, Little Egret: Egretta garzetta n= 11, Purple Heron: Ardea purpurea n= 6, Cor- morant: Phalacrocorax carbo n= 5, Black- headed Gull: Larus ridibundus n= 21, Rock Pigeon: Columba livia n= 5) were examined for louse. The birds were found in some of the houses of hunters keeping as trap for catching more birds, and some of the bird keepers. Grebes were taken for checking from fishermen that catch the birds accidentally in the fishing nets. For collecting the lice, with considering the restricts for handling the wild birds and little time for checking each bird and from among the reliable methods (Clay- ton and Drown 2001), visual examination as the main method and based on the situation, post-mortem-ruffling were used. In order to collect the lice, the body of each bird was carefully examined. All lice were collected and placed in tubes with 70% alcohol. The louse specimens were cleared about 24 hours in 10% KOH, and then put in distilled water for one day. Following dehydration in a grad- ed alcohol series (70%, 80%, 90% and 99%, in consecutive days) the specimens were mounted on slides in Canada balsam. After being dried in incubator, lice specimens were identified under a light microscope. The identification of the lice was carried out according to rele- vant literatures (Price and Beer 1963, 1965, Timmermann 1964, Clay 1973, Price 1973, Zlotorzycka 1976, Price et al. 2003). Results Eleven lice species were identified on the birds in this study. Aquanirmus podicipis (Denny, 1842): 4 ♀, 1 Nymph (N), December 23rd, 2010, Host: Great Crested Grebe: Podiceps cristatus, Locality: Nashtarood City, Mazandaran Province. Intensity: 5 in one bird. This spe- cies is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 1). Ardeicola sp.: 1 ♀, June 30 th, 2010, Host: Little Egret: Egretta garzetta, Locality: Ta- lesh, Guilan Province. The species was not identified because there was only one female sample that was crashed during the mount- ing on slide. Ardeicola sp is reported for the first time in Iran. Remarks: Ardeicola expallidus Blagovest- chensky, 1940 lives on E. garzetta. Our sam- ple was close to this species, although be- cause of lack of samples it wasnt identified to species level. Austromenopon transversum (Denny, 1842): 3 ♀ 1 N, December 1st, 2010, Host: Black- headed Gull: Larus ridibundus, Locality: Cheshmeh kileh river, Tonekabon City, Mazan- 84 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, June 2013, 7(1): 83–89 B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of… http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 daran Province. Intensity: 4 in one bird. This species is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 2). Campanulates compar (Burmeister, 1838): 3 ♀ 1 ♂, 2009, Host: Rock Pigeon: Columba livia, Locality: Nashtarood City, Mazandaran Province. Intensity: 4 in one bird (Fig. 3). Ciconiphilus decimfasciatus (Boisduval and Lacordaire, 1835): 3 ♂ 1 ♀, June 30th, 2010; Host: Little Egret: Egretta garzetta, Locali- ty: Talesh, Guilan Province. Intensity: 2 in each bird. This species is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 4, 5). Colpocephalum turbinatum Denny, 1842: 1 ♀, 2009, Host: Rock Pigeon: Columba livia, Locality: Nashtarood City, Mazandaran Prov- ince. This species is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 6). Columbicola columbae (Linnaeus, 1758): 3 ♀ 2 ♂, 2009, Host: Rock Pigeon: Columba livia, Locality: Nashtarood City, Mazandaran Province. Intensity: 4 in one and 1 in one bird (Fig. 7). Hohorstiella lata (Piaget, 1880): 3 ♀, 2009, Host: Rock Pigeon: Columba livia, Locality: Nashtarood City, Mazandaran Province. In- tensity: 3 in one bird. This species is report- ed for the first time in Iran (Fig. 8). Menacanthus sp: 1 ♀, December 1st, 2010, Host: Purple Heron: Ardea purpurea, Nash- tarood City, Mazandaran Province (Fig. 9, 10). Remarks: Menacanthus species are not found on the birds belonging to the family Ardeidae. However, one specimen of Mena- canthus sp. was detected on the heron. The identification of the host species was correct, but in this case maybe the Purple Heron was an accidental host for this specimen. Pectinopygus gyricornis (Denny, 1842): 3 ♂ 3 N, April 18th, 2010, Host: Great Cormo- rant: Phalacrocorax carbo, Locality: Ramsar City, Mazandaran Province. Intensity: 5 in one bird and 1 in another bird. This species is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 11). Pseudomenopon dolium (Rudow, 1869): 1 ♂, December 23rd, 2010, Host: Great Crested Grebe: Podiceps cristatus, Locality: Nashta- rood City, Mazandaran Province. This species is reported for the first time in Iran (Fig. 12, 13). Fig. 1. Aquanirmus podicipis, adult female, host: Podiceps cristatus (Great Crested Grebe) (original) Fig. 2. Austromenopon transversum, adult female, host: Larus ridibundus (Black-headed Gull) (original) Fig. 3. Campanulates compar, adult female, host: Columba livia (Rock Pigeon) (original) 85 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, June 2013, 7(1): 83–89 B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of… http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 Fig. 4. Ciconiphilus decimfasciatus, adult female, host: Egretta garzetta (Little Egret), (original) Fig. 6. Colpocephalum turbinatum, adult female,host: Columba livia (Rock Pigeon) (original) Fig. 8. Hohorstiella lata, adult female, host: Co- lumba livia (Rock Pigeon) (original) Fig. 5. Ciconiphilus decimfasciatus, adult male, host: Egretta garzetta (Little Egret), (original) Fig. 7. Columbicola columbae, adult male (left), adult female (right), host: Columba livia (Rock Pi- geon) (original) Fig. 9. Menacanthus sp, adult female, host: Ardea purpurea (Purple Heron) (original) 86 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, June 2013, 7(1): 83–89 B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of… http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 Fig. 10. Menacanthus sp, adult female, head, host: Ardea purpurea (Purple Heron) (original) Fig. 11. Pectinopygus gyricornis, adult male, host: Phalacrocorax carbo (Cormorant) (original) Fig. 12. Pseudomenopon dolium, adult female, host: Fig. 13. Pseudomenopon dolium, adult male, host: Podiceps cristatus (Great Crested Grebe) (original) Podiceps cristatus (Great Crested Grebe) (original) Discussion Approximately 4000 valid lice species have been reported on the birds worldwide (Price et al. 2003). However, there is little pre- vious information about the louse fauna of the birds in Iran and there are not many stud- ies done about the chewing lice on the wild birds in this country. In the studies done rel- evant to the chewing lice found on wild birds, approximately 39 lice species have been de- tected in the birds in Iran, until today. A few number of wild birds species were examined for the louse species in those studies. Alt- hough only six species of wild birds includ- ing 79 birds overall were examined for the louse in this study, but eleven lice species with nine new species for the fauna of Iran are reported and the overall infection rate was 15.2%. Out of these birds, only rock pi- geon was examined by the previous re- searchers of Iran (Rafyi et al. 1968) and the other 5 species of birds are checked for lice for the first time in this study. In this study, eleven lice species, Aquanirmus podicipis, Ardeicola sp, Austromenopon transversum, Campanulates compar, Ciconiphilus decim- fasciatus, Colpocephalum turbinatum, Col- 87 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of … http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 umbicola columbae, Hohorstiella lata, Me- naca-nthus sp, Pectinopygus gyricornis and P- seudomenopon dolium were found on the birds. Campanulates compar (= Goniocotes biden- tatus) and C. columbae were the only species reported previously in Iran, Campanulates compar from Pigeon as Goniocotes bidentatus by Rafyi et al. (1968) and Ardalan (1972) and Columbicola columbae from Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) by Rafyi et al. (1968) and Rak (1974). Except these two species, the others are recorded for the first time in Iran. One specimen of Ardeicola sp. collected from Little Egret was not identified because the specimen was crashed during mounting on the slide. Rak et al. (1975) stated that they detected some lice species found on the hosts which were not their normal host. Similarly, we found one specimen of Menacanthus sp col- lected from Purple Heron which is not its normal host and this specimen could not be identified and this issue needs to be studied more with more samples. In conclusion A. podicipis, P. dolium, Ardeicola sp, C. decimfasciatus, Menacanthus sp, A. transversum, P. gyricornis, C. turbinatum and Hohorstiella lata were recorded for the first time on the birds in Iran. Normally, the spe- cies belonging to the genus Menacanthus are not found on the birds belonging to the fami- ly Ardeidae. However, one specimen of Me- nacanthus sp was found on the purple Heron for the first time in this study. Acknowledgements We wish to thank Dr Jamshid Mansoori for his great help in confirming the identifi- cation of birds and to Dr Sareh Tavakol (Is- lamic Azad University, Tonekabon branch) for providing one of the samples.With spe- cial thanks to Aynaz. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. References Ardalan A (1971) Mallophaga of Iran: new records. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 64(2): 236–237. Ardalan A (1972) Notes on mallophaga of Iran. The 4th National Congress of Plant Medicine, 2–7 September 1972, Evin, Tehran, Iran. pp. 1–6. Ardalan A (1975) Mallophaga of Iran. II. 5 new records of Mallophaga from Iran. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 68(1): 93–94. Clay T (1959) Key to the species of Aust- romenopon Bedford (Mallophaga) Par- asitic on the Charadriiformes. Proc R Ent Soc Lond (B). 28: 157–168. Clay T (1973) The species groups of Pec- tinopygus (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae). Bull Brit Mus (Nat Hist) Entomology. 29: 201–223. Clayton DH, Drown DM (2001) Critical eval- uation of five methods for quantifying chewing lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera). J Parasitol. 87(6): 1291–1300. Edwards RL (1965) Revision of the Genus Aquanirmus (Mallophaga: Philopteridae), Parasitic on Grebes (Podicipidae). Canad Entomol. 97: 920–935. Eslami A, Ghaemi P, Rahbari S (2009) Para- sitic infections of free range chickens from Golestan Province, Iran. Iranian J Parasitol. 4(3): 10–14. Mansoori J (2008) A Guide to the Birds of Iran (2nd ed). Farzan Book Publishing, Tehran. (In Persian). Price RD (1974) A review of the genus Pseudomenopon (Mallophaga: Meno- ponidae). Ann Entomol Soc Am. 67: 73–84. Price RD, Beer J (1963) Species of Col- pocephalum (Mallophaga: Menoponidae) parasitic upon the Falconiformes. Can Entomol. 95: 731–763. Price RD, Beer J (1965) The Colpocephalum 88 J Arthropod-Borne Dis, B Dik, A Halajian: Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) of … http://jad.tums.ac.ir Published Online: April 10, 2013 (Mallophaga: Menoponidae) of the Ciconiiformes. Ann Entomol Soc Am. 58: 111–131. Price RD, Hellenthal RA, Palma RL, Johnson KP, Clayton DH (2003) The Chewing Lice: World Checklist and Biological Overview. Illinois Natural History Sur- vey Special Publication 24. Rafyi A, Alavi A, Rak H (1968) Bird lice in Iran. J Vet Faculty. 25(1): 107–122. Rak H (1974) Lice of domestic animals (Mammals and Birds) in Iran. The 5th National Congress of Plant Medicine, 1974 September 7–12, Tabriz, Iran. Rak H, Anwar M, Niak A (1975) The species of Mallophaga in wild birds in Iran. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 68(6): 588–591. Thompson G (1946) Notes on species of the Genus Pectinopygus (s.l.) (Mallophaga), III. Ann Mag Nat Hist (Series 11). 13: 767–780. Timmermann G (1954) Vorläufige Übersicht über das Amblyceren- Genus Aust- romenopon Bedord, 1939 (Mallophaga). Bonn Zool Beitr. 5: 195–206. Timmermann G (1964) Gruppen-Revisionen bei Mallophagen. VII. Die Pectinopygus- Arten der Grosskormorane (Gen. Phala- crocorax Brisson, 1760 s.str.). Mitt Hamburg Zool Mus Inst. 61: 271–284. Zlotorzycka J (1976) Wszoly- Mallophaga. Nadrodzina Menoponoidea. Polskie Towarzystwo Entomologiczne [Klucze do Oznaczania Owadów Polski]. 15(2): 1–189. 89