a New Species of Sucking Louse Insecta Anoplura From a Montane Forest Rat in Central Sulawesi and a Preliminary Interpretation of the Sucking Louse Fauna of Sulawesi Indonesia

Abstract

Hoplopleura traubi, a new species of hoplopleurid sucking louse collected from the murine rodent, Maxomys wattsi, is described. The louse and its host are known only from montane forest on Gunung (Mount) Tambusisi (1.degree.38'S, 121.degree.23'E) in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The morphology of H. traubi is compared to that of related species of Hoplopleura known from Sulawesi and Sundaland. The polyplacid sucking louse Polyplax reclinata is recorded for the first time from Sulawesi; specimens were recovered from a house shrew, Suncus murinus. The anopluran fauna as currently known from native Sulawesian mammals is briefly analyzed and compared with the known faunas of other parts of the Indo-Australian region. [A new record is also given for Pediculus humanus].