Colpocephalum californici (California Condor Louse)

[Melanie]

extinct louse which has used the California Condor as host.

For some parasites, such
as a potentially unique louse lineage (Neotrichodectes
minutus) from the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes),
or host-specific lice (Colpocephalum californici) of the
California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), it is too
late, since parasites were intentionally killed during
population management and captive breeding efforts
(Gompper & Williams, 1998; Koh et al., 2004). These
examples underscore the fact that formal protection of
a host does not necessarily ensure protection of its
parasites or other symbionts, which is not a novel
observation. One study estimated that 200 ‘affiliate’
species are now extinct due to their hosts’ demise and
that 6300 other affiliate species are co-endangered with
their hosts (although most affiliates remain unlisted; Koh
et al., 2004). Invertebrates may be particularly prone to
extinction risk (Hadfield, 1993; Clark & May, 2002; Stein,
Master&Morse, 2002), and since parasites are distributed
in a negative binomial fashion among hosts (most hosts
have few parasite individuals and few hosts have many
parasite individuals: Crofton, 1971), they are particularly
vulnerable to extinction when host populations are small
or when natural dispersal is disrupted (sensu Templeton
et al., 2001).

www.umsl.edu/~biology/docs/noahparkerlabbio_files/Whiteman%202005%20Anim%20Cons.pdf

[Melanie]

Faultline, California's Environmental Magazine
July 02, 2004
Parasites lost
by Joe Eaton
A recent article by Matt Kaplan in the British weekly New Scientist includes an ironic footnote to the saga of the California condor. It seems that the condor-savers who took the last of the great scavengers into protective custody back in the 1980s may have killed off another species in the process. With the best of intentions, of course.

When the captive condors arrived at the San Diego Zoo, their handlers dusted them for lice. One researcher recalled that only a couple of the birds had lice, which appeared to be just "typical lice." But, as Chris Lyal, a louse specialist at the Natural History Museum in London, told Kaplan: "There are in fact no such things as ‘typical lice.’"

A hefty catalog of the world’s chewing lice—not sucking lice; that’s another order altogether—and their hosts lists three species known to have parasitized the California condor. Two appear to have infested other birds as well, but Colpocephalum californici, which was first described in 1963, was a condor specialist. The entomologists who studied the handful of known specimens commented: "Since the California condor is now very rare, these nine lice may well represent all that will ever be found."

According to one standard reference, California is home to at least 170 species of chewing lice. Most use birds as their hosts: in many cases, one particular species of bird. There’s Piagietella bursaepelicanus, for instance, found only in the inside of the pouch of the brown pelican. The white pelican has its own louse.

As do humans, of course. If you’re ever feeling alone, try reading Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex. We—and pelicans, condors, sea lions, guinea pigs, just about all complex organisms—are all ecosystems: environments for a host of parasites, commensals, symbionts. And those creatures are part of the environment in which we all evolved, as much as more conventional predators, or climate or food.

Don’t worry, I’m not getting teleological here. I wouldn’t want to say Colpocephalum californici existed for a purpose. But it had a role: it was part of what made the California condor what it was, even if the selective pressure was narrow and subtle. Without its natural parasites, the condor in its captive-bred generations has become something just a bit different.

And parasites are data. Ornithologists have used the evolutionary relationships of feather lice to check the findings of genetics—for example, the studies that suggest condors and other New World vultures are more closely related to storks than to the Old World vultures they superficially resemble. (Closer to home, the genetic distance between the human head louse and body louse has yielded an approximate date for the invention of clothing.)

The closer you look at almost any natural relationship, the more complex it becomes. As in the poem about great fleas and little fleas, parasites have parasites of their own. Among parasitic wasps, there are hyperparasites that lay their own eggs on or in a parasite developing on or in its own host. Tertiary parasites have been recorded, and even quaternary parasites: parasites of parasites of parasites of parasites.

In the marshes around Suisun Bay, conservationists have expended considerable effort to save an endangered plant called the soft bird’s-beak, Cordylanthus mollis mollis. This relative of Indian paintbrushes and owl’s-clovers is technically a hemiparasite: it can manufacture its own food in a pinch, but it also taps into the root systems of other plants for nutrients. Soft bird’s-beak, like the better-known parasite saltmarsh dodder, may enhance the diversity of marsh plant communities by preventing dominant species from taking over. And dodder may parasitize bird’s-beak, which also sustains two moth species, one apparently host-specific and presumptively endangered itself.

Soft bird’s-beak is an exception to the general neglect of endangered parasites by environmentalists. That’s understandable; if advocacy groups love charismatic beasts like tigers and elephants, creatures like the condor louse are about as charismatic as Dick Cheney. But lice are as much a part of natural communities and systems as condors. What Aldo Leopold said about how the first rule of intelligent tinkering is saving all the parts should apply even to the parts we can’t see, or those we might consider superfluous or downright gross.


www.faultline.org/archives/001752.html

[Melanie]

The endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) and its now extinct louse (Colpocephalum californici). This louse was only known from the California condor and went extinct as a result of efforts by conservation biologists to rid the bird of its parasites. Condor image used with permission from del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. (1994). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2. New World Vultures to Guineafowl. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Copyright information available in the first instance from from Vince Smith.

Pic of lice

[sebbe67]

I had already post a thread about this species, I cant find it anymore, seems like you or peter has deleted it.

[Melanie]

Yes, after i've posted that thread i have found yours. But therefore that you have only written one sentence and given the link to the picture i have thought i could delete your entry. Hope it's okay.

[sebbe67]

yes of course, just wondering were it had go

its definitely ok.

[Melanie]

louses and lices are insects!

[Melanie]

Scientific description (Price & Beer, 1963)

Species of Colpocephalum (Mallophaga: Menoponidae) parasitic upon the Falconiformes
Publication Type: Journal Article
Year of Publication: 1963
Authors: Price, RD, Beer, JR
Journal: Canadian Entomologist
Volume: 95
Issue: 7
Pagination: 731 - 763
Date Published: 1963
Keywords: mtax, PHP
Abstract:

Twenty-five species of Colpocephalum sen. lat. from hawks are recognized and discussed; 8 of these are newly described: angolensis from Gy pohierax angolensis, barbati from Gypaetus barbatus aureus, californici from Gymnogyps californianus, chelictiniae from Chelictinia riocourii, ecaudati from Terathopius ecaudatus, indi from Haliastur indus, percnopteri from Neopbron percnopterus, and tracbelioti from Torgos tracheliotus. New synonymies include: ailurum Nitzsch, bicinctum Nitz., caudatum Giebel, costaricense Carriker, latifasciutum Piaget, longipes Piag., 1885 (nec 1880), majus Piag., 1885 (nec 1880), oxyurum Nitz., setosum Piag. (p. 519), tricinctum Nitz., and wetzeli (Eichler) with turbinatum Denny; and notatum Piag. with maculatum Piag. A key is given for the species of Colpocephalum occurring on hawks and owls.
URL: www.phthiraptera.info/Publications/0991.pdf