Strigiphilus
Strigiphilus is a genus of chewing louse in the suborder Ischnocera. It was circumscribed in 1910 by Eric Mjöberg.
Taxonomic history
Mjöberg initially circumscribed Strigiphilus as a subgenus of the genus he referred to as Docophorus (now known as Philopterus).
In a 1966 paper, Theresa Clay recognized 29 species and grouped them into the following nine species groups:
- Strigiphilus rostratus (Burmeister, 1838) group
- Strigiphilus heterocerus (Grube, 1851) group
- Strigiphilus cursor (Burmeister, 1838) group
- Strigiphilus crenulatus (Giebel, 1874) group
- Strigiphilus macrogenitalis Emerson & Elbel, 1957 group
- Strigiphilus strigis (Pontoppidan, 1763) group
- Strigiphilus siamensis Emerson & Elbel, 1957 group
- Strigiphilus ketupae Emerson & Elbel, 1957 group
- Strigiphilus cursitans (Nitzsch, 1861) group
The largest group is the S. curstans group.
Hosts
Strigiphilus is the only genus of Ischnocera to exclusively parasitize owls.
Species
As of 2017[update], there are approximately fifty species of Strigiphilus. Species include:
- Strigiphilus garylarsoni Clayton, 1990 (cursitans group)