Reticulipeurus robustus
Creators: name: Gustafsson, Daniel R.
name: Lei, Lujia
name: Chu, Xingzhi
name: Zou, Fasheng
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Phthiraptera
Philopteridae
Reticulipeurus
Reticulipeurus robustus

description: Reticulipeurus robustus (Rudow, 1869)
(Figs 7–8, 25, 45–47, 71, 80, 89, 93)
Lipeurus robustus Rudow, 1869: 32.
Oxylipeurus mesopelios robustus (Rudow, 1869); Clay 1938: 177.
Oxylipeurus robustus (Rudow), 1869; Hopkins & Clay 1952: 260.
Reticulipeurus mesopelios robustus (Rud.); Złotorzycka 1966: 112.
Oxylipeurus robustus (Rudow, 1869); Price et al. 2003: 204.
Type host. Lophura leucomelanos lineata (Vigors, 1831) —Kalij pheasant.
Type locality. None given. The natural range of the type host spans the Himalayas and Myanmar, but this host is common in captivity.
Other host. Lophura nycthemera (Linnaeus, 1758) —silver pheasant.
Description.
Both sexes. Head slender, frons broadly rounded (Fig. 7). Marginal carina relatively wide. Dorsal preantennal suture extends far lateral to ads. Head chaetotaxy as in Figs 7 and 93. Lateral margins of postantennal head parallel or slightly concave. Thoracic and abdominal plates and chaetotaxy as in Figs 7–8. Reticulation extensive across pteronotum, pterosternal plate, metepisternum, tergopleurites, and sternal and subgenital plates.
Male. Antennae as in Fig. 25; only rudimentary tooth-like projection on scape (in some specimens slightly larger than illustrated); rugose area of flagellomere I extensive. Accessory sternal plates present on segment VIII (Fig. 80). Stylus short, of roughly equal width throughout (Fig. 80). Basal apodeme slender (Fig. 45). Mesosome small, distal margin converging to median point, rugose area broadening slightly laterally; antero-lateral hooks small. Gonopore long, wide (Fig. 47). Ventral sclerite as in Fig. 47, lateral ends widening; one sublateral pore and two submedian microsetae on each side on posterior margin. Parameres slender, tapering, parameral heads slender, acute; pst1 much proximal to pst2. Measurements as in Table 1.
Female. Antennae broken off in all examined specimens, and here illustrated approximately. Tergopleurites IX+X and XI fused (Fig. 8). Subgenital plate seemingly widely separated medianly, but diffuse and here illustrated approximately. Vulval margin deeply concave, with 22–26 setae marginally on each side. Posterior lobes of abdomen elongated (Fig. 71). Subvulval plates tapering distally, proximal end reaching anterior to vulval margin. Measurements as in Table 1.
Non-type material examined. Ex Lophura nycthemera: 4♂, 4♀, Fokien [= Fujian Province], China, Oct. 1904, R. Meinertzhagen, 3844, NHMUK010682579 (NHML).
Remarks. In common with Clay (1938), we were not able to examine any specimen from the type host of Reticulipeurus robustus. Clay & Hopkins’s (1955) summary of material available in the Rudow Collection held in the Zoologisches Institut und Zoologisches Museum (Hamburg, Germany) does not include any specimen of R. robustus. The conclusion is that Rudow’s type specimens were destroyed in 1943, during World War II (Clay & Hopkins 1955: 50). New material from the type host is needed to confirm if the two host species listed above harbour the same louse species. Until such time, we follow Clay (1938) in regarding R. robustus as parasitic on both hosts.
description: Published as part of Gustafsson, Daniel R., Lei, Lujia, Chu, Xingzhi & Zou, Fasheng, 2020, Review of Chinese species of the Oxylipeurus - complex (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae), with descriptions of two new genera and five new species, pp. 201-255 in Zootaxa 4742 (2) on page 218, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4742.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3677719