New records for chewing lice of the genus Dennyus Neumann, 1906 (Phthiraptera: Amblycera) on two swifts from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Very little information was known for the chewing lice fauna of Saudi Arabia especially from hosts of Apodiformes. Swifts (Apodiformes) are common resident and migratory passerine birds through Saudi Arabia. Through the world there are two chewing lice genera that are known to infest swifts: Dennyus Neumann, 1906 and Eureum Nitzsch, 1818. None of them were recorded from the kingdom before.Two species of resident wild swifts were examined for chewing lice for the first time in Saudi Arabia. Two rare lice species were identified: Dennyus (Dennyus) cypsiurus Thompson, 1948 and D. (Dennyus) hirundinis (Linnaeus, 1761) (Phthiraptera: Amblycera: Menoponidae) infesting African palm swift Cypsiurus parvus (Lichtenstein, 1823) and common swift Apus apus (Linnaeus, 1758), respectively. The described species are considered as new country records. They will be added to the Saudi Arabia parasitic fauna. Taxonomical and ecological remarks were provided for the identified chewing lice through this work, along with notes on swift/chewing lice interaction.

Keywords

• ectoparasites
• wild birds
• chewing lice
• new recor