Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 66 (1) 2019, 17–39 | DOI 10.3897/dez.66.32423 Redescriptions of thirteen species of chewing lice in the Brueelia- complex (Phthiraptera, Ischnocera, Philopteridae), with one new synonymy and a neotype designation for Nirmus lais Giebel, 1874 Daniel R. Gustafsson1, Lucie Oslejskova2, Tomas Najer3, Oldrich Sychra2, Fasheng Zou1 1 Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, 105 Xingang West Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, 510260, China 2 Department of Biology and Wildlife Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palackeho tr. 1946/1, 612 42, Brno, Czech Republic 3 Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic http://zoobank.org/8B55AC08-B6EA-4488-8850-26CB8E1A4207 Corresponding author: Daniel R. Gustafsson ([email protected]) Abstract Received 14 December 2018 Accepted 18 January 2019 Thirteen species of chewing lice in the Brueelia-complex are redescribed and illustrat- Published 4 February 2019 ed. They are: Brueelia blagovescenskyi Balát, 1955, ex Emberiza schoeniclus (Linnae- us, 1758); B. breueri Balát, 1955, ex Chloris chloris (Linnaeus, 1758); B. conocephala Academic editor: (Blagoveshchensky, 1940) ex Sitta europaea (Linnaeus, 1758); B. ferianci Balát, 1955, Susanne Randolf ex Anthus trivialis (Linnaeus, 1758); B. glizi Balát, 1955, ex Fringilla montifringilla Linnaeus, 1758; B. kluzi Balát, 1955, ex Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758; B. kratochvili Balát, 1958, ex Motacilla flava Linnaeus, 1758; B. matvejevi Balát, 1981, ex Turdus Key Words viscivorus Linnaeus, 1758; B. pelikani Balát, 1958, ex Emberiza melanocephala Scopoli, 1769; B. rosickyi Balát, 1955, ex Sylvia nisoria (Bechstein, 1792); B. vaneki Balát, 1981, Ischnocera ex Acrocephalus schoenobaenus (Linnaeus, 1758); Guimaraesiella haftorni (Balát, lectotype 1958) ex Turdus iliacus Linnaeus, 1758; G. lais (Giebel, 1874) ex Luscinia megarhyn- neotype chos (Brehm, 1831). Redescriptions are made from type material where available. Holo- Philopteridae types are identified in Balát’s material when possible, and lectotypes are designated for Phthiraptera B. blagovescenskyi, B. breueri, B. glizi, B. ferianci, B. kluzi, B. kratochvili, B. pelikani, redescription and B. rosickyi; a neotype of Nirmus lais Giebel, 1874 is designated. Brueelia weberi Balát, 1982, is placed as a synonym of Brueelia conocephala (Blagoveshchensky, 1940). Introduction et al. 2018a); however, the majority of the proposed spe- cies in this complex are still poorly described and only Correct identification of chewing lice (Phthiraptera) to partially illustrated. species level is often hampered by inadequate species To partially address the difficulties in identifying lice descriptions. During work on a recent revision of the in this complex, we here redescribe 13 species of chew- species-rich Brueelia-complex (Gustafsson and Bush ing lice in the Brueelia-complex: 10 species in the ge- 2017), it became apparent that the majority of the de- nus Brueelia Kéler, 1936 and two species in the genus scribed species in this group are impossible to identify Guimaraesiella Eichler, 1949. Redescriptions of 10 of without comparison with type material. Several recent these species are based on type material, complemented publications have provided redescriptions of some key in some cases by non-type material. In most species, the taxa (e.g., Mey and Barker 2014, Valim and Cicchino present status of Balát’s specimens is addressed, includ- 2015, Gustafsson and Bush 2017, Mey 2017, Gustafsson ing notes on specimens that must be regarded as lost. To Copyright Daniel R. Gustafsson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 18 Daniel R. Gustafsson et al.: Redescriptions of thirteen species of chewing lice in the Brueelia-complex... stabilize the nomenclature and anchor the descriptions seta; ss = sutural setae; vms = vulval marginal setae; vos and illustrations here to specific specimens, we also des- = vulval oblique setae; vss = vulval submarginal setae. ignate a number of lectotypes and paralectotypes from Counts of vos include the distal vos typically situated me- Balát’s syntype series. dian to the vss. Setal characters are given in italics. In addition, we redescribe Nirmus lais Giebel, 1874, Host taxonomy follows Clements et al. (2018). The based on specimens in Balát’s collection, and designate species treated here are ordered according to host family. one of these as the neotype of this species. Moreover, we here consider one proposed species name, Brueelia we- Note on Balát’s type series beri Balát, 1982, as a synonym of an older species name, Degeeriella conocephala Blagoveshtchensky, 1940. We In the original descriptions of most of the species rede- take the opportunity to redescribe D. conocephala as scribed here, Balát explicitly mentioned a single male and well, based on non-type specimens in Balát’s collection. a single female as type specimens but listed all other spec- With these redescriptions, only one species of Brueelia imens examined as “other material”. Article 72.4.6 of the and Guimaraesiella described by Balát remain without International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) modern redescriptions: Guimaraesiella tovornikae (Balát, states that if an author establishing a new species-group 1981). We were unable to find any specimens of G. tovo- taxon uses the term “type” or its equivalents for some rnikae at the Moravian Museum, and the types must there- specimens, but also lists other specimens, these additional fore be assumed to be lost. Gustafsson and Bush (2017) specimens are excluded from the type series. Balát appears saw specimens identified as this species in the Brelih to have been unaware of this, and labeled several non-type Collection at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History slides as “paratypes”, including some slides deposited in (Ljubljana, Slovenia) but did not redescribe this species. other collections. These specimens have no special status, and are not either paratypes or paralectotypes. Material and methods Systematics We examined slide-mounted specimens in František Balát’s collection deposited at the Moravian Museum, PHTHIRAPTERA Haeckel, 1896 Brno (MMBC). In addition, we examined some speci- Ischnocera Kellogg, 1896 mens from the Natural History Museum, London, United Philopteridae Burmeister, 1838 Kingdom (NHML), the Slovenian Museum of Natural Brueelia-complex History, Ljubljana, Slovenia (PMSL), and the Muse- Brueelia Kéler, 1936 um of Natural History, University of Wrocław, Poland (MNHW). We typically only illustrated and measured Philopterus Nitzsch, 1818: 288 (in partim). specimens at the MMBC; other specimens were only Nirmus Nitzsch, 1818: 291 (in partim). examined visually. In some cases, we were unable to il- Degeeriella Neumann, 1906: 60 (in partim). lustrate, for example, male genitalia accurately, even if Painjunirmus Ansari, 1947: 285. specimens in other collections were better preserved than Allobrueelia Eichler, 1951: 36 (in partim). the ones at the MMBC. Specimens were examined in an Nigronirmus Złotorzycka, 1964: 248. Olympus CX31 microscope. Illustrations were drawn by Spironirmus Złotorzycka, 1964: 261. hand, using a drawing tube fitted to the microscope. Line Serinirmus Soler Cruz, Rodríguez, Florido-Navío and drawings were scanned, collated, and edited in GIMP Muñoz Parra, 1987: 244. (http://www.gimp.org). Grey lines in all illustrations denote the approximate extent of dark pigmentation on Type species. Brueelia rossittensis Kéler, 1936: 257 [= heads, tergopleurites, and female subgenital plates; these Nirmus brachythorax Giebel, 1874: 134] (by original patterns typically differ slightly between specimens of designation). the same species and sometimes between sides of the same specimen. Measurements were made in Quick PHOTO MIKRO Brueelia blagovescenskyi Balát, 1955 3.1 (Promicra, Prague, Czechia). Measurements are given Figs 1–5 in millimetres for the following dimensions: AW = ab- dominal width (at segment V); HL = head length (at mid- Brueelia blagovescenskyi Balát, 1955: 504. line); HW = head width (at temples); PRW = prothoracic width (at posterior end); PTW = pterothoracic width (at Type host. Emberiza schoeniclus (Linnaeus, 1758), reed posterior end); TL = total length (at midline). Terminol- bunting (Emberizidae). ogy of chaetotaxy and morphological structures follows Type locality. Hodonín, “Kapřiska”, Czechia. Gustafsson and Bush (2017), and include: aps = accesso- Description. Both sexes. Head trapezoidal (Fig. 3), ry post-spiracular seta; mms = marginal mesometanotal lateral margins of preantennal area concave distally and setae; pst1–2 = parameral setae 1–2; pts = post-temporal convex proximally, frons widely concave. Marginal cari- dez.pensoft.net Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 63 (1) 2019, 17–39 19 Figures 3–5. Brueelia blagovescenskyi Balát, 1955, ex Ember- iza schoeniclus (Linnaeus, 1758) 3 Female head, dorsal and ventral views 4 Male genitalia, dorsal view 5 Female subgenital plate and vulval margin, ventral view. Figures 1, 2. Brueelia blagovescenskyi Balát, 1955,