Polyplacidae Explained

Polyplacidae is a family of lice in the suborder Anoplura, the sucking lice. Lice in this family are known commonly as the spiny rat lice.^[1] The family has a cosmopolitan distribution. As of 2010 there were 193 species.^[2]

These are small to medium-sized lice. They are usually sexually dimorphic. They have 5-segmented antennae and small, slender, clawed forelegs. Their middle and hindlegs may be almost equal in size, or the hindlegs may be larger.^[3]

Lice in this family are parasites of many types of small mammals, including spiny rats, cavies, rabbits, hares, chinchillas, bushbabies, lemurs, squirrels, shrews, pouched rats, treeshrews, hyraxes, and Oriental dormice.^[2]

Members of this family are quite variable based on its current description and molecular data suggest that the family is paraphyletic. It requires study and a revision to make the description of the family as a whole more accurate.^[2]

Genera include:^[4]

• Abrocomaphthirus^[3]
• Ctenophthirus
• Cuyana
• Docophthirus
• Eulinognathus
• Fahrenholzia
• Galeophthirus
• Haemodipsus
• Johnsonpthirus
• Lagidiophthirus
• Lemurpediculus
• Lemurphthirus
• Linognathoides
• Mirophthirus
• Neohaematopinus
• Phthirpediculus
• Polyplax
• Proenderleinellus
• Sathrax
• Scipio
• Typhlomyophthirus

Notes and References

1. http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/entomol/exphthir.htm Classification of Phthiraptera (Anoplura).
2. Light, J. E., et al. (2010). Evolutionary history of mammalian sucking lice (Phthiraptera: Anoplura). BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10(1), 292.
3. Durden, L. A. & Webb, J. P. (1999). Abrocomaphthirus hoplai, a new genus and species of sucking louse from Chile and its relevance to zoogeography. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 13(4), 447-452.
4. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=624295 Polyplacidae.