Chewing lice (phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) of some aquatic birds in Konya province, Turkey, new records for Turkish fauna

Abstract

This study was performed to detect chewing lice species existed on some aquatic birds in Konya province in Turkey between 2014-2016. For this aim, the birds which were brought to the clinics of Selçuk University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for treatment, and dead birds collected at Lake Çavuşçu were examined for louse. Louse specimens collected from the birds were preserved in eppendorf tubes containing ethyl alcohol 70%, made transparent in potassium hydroxide (KOH) 10% for 24 hours, rinsed in distilled water and transferred to alcohol 70% and 99% at consecutive days. They were mounted in Canada balsam on the slides for identification. Among studied 94 birds belonging to 12 species in eight genera in five orders, 84 of them (89.36%) were found to be infested with lice. Eighteen louse species belonging to 14 genera were detected in the study. The genus Aquanirmus (Clay and Meinertzhagen, 1939) and the species; Aquanirmuspodicepis (Denny, 1842), Pectinopygusbifasciatus (Piaget, 1880), Anaticolamergiserrati (De Geer, 1778), Pseudomenopondolium (Rudow, 1869), Laemobothrionatrum (Nitzsch, 1818), Rallicolaminutus (Nitzsch [in Giebel], 1866), Austromenopon transversum (Denny, 1842) were reported for the first time in Turkey.