Chewing lice (Phthiraptera) found on songbirds (Passeriformes) in Turkey

This study was performed to detect chewing lice species found on the songbirds at Lake Kuyucuk bird ringing station in the Kars province located in eastern Turkey.

Chewing lice were collected from songbirds captured between September and October 2009. Fifty-one birds belonging to 22 species and 16 genera from 10 families were examined for the louse.

Eleven of 51 birds (21.57%) belonging to 7 species; were infested with at least one chewing louse species. The collected lice were identified as Menacanthus chrysophaeus (Kellogg, 1896) on Reed Bunting, Menacanthus pusillus (Nitzsch,1866) on Water Pipits, Calandra Lark and Yellow Wagtail, Myrsidea rustica (Giebel,1874) on Swallow, Brueelia cruciata (Burmeister,1838) on Red-backed Shrike, and Penenirmus rarus (Zlotorzycka,1976) on Chiffchaff. All four Reed Bunting specimens were infested with Menacanthus chrysophaeus. The rate of infestation was 100% in Reed Bunting, Red-backed Shrike and Swallow; 66.7% in Yellow Wagtail; 50% in Calandra Lark and Chiffchaff and 11.1% in Water Pipits. No louse infestation was found in the birds belonging to Paridae, Passeridae, Sylviidae, and Muscipapidae families.

Menacanthus chrysophaeus on Reed Bunting and Menacanthus pusillus on Calandra Lark are new hosts for these lice species. All the louse species determined in the present study are first records for Turkey.