''Apterygon'' is a genus of

louse Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to New Zealand and is an

ectoparasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

kiwi bird Kiwi ( ) are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand of the order Apterygiformes. The five extant species fall into the family Apterygidae () and genus ''Apteryx'' (). Approximately the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest ...

s (''Apteryx'').

Theresa Clay Theresa Rachel "Tess" Clay (7 February 1911 – 17 March 1995) was an English entomologist. She was introduced to zoology by her older relative, the ornithologist and adventurer Richard Meinertzhagen, with whom she had an unusually close relati ...

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

the genus in 1961. In 1947, she had referred to this genus as "New Genus D", but it was not formally named as she needed to confirm the host of her specimen as well as additional material.

Description

''Apterygon'' heads lack preocular slits and the female genital chamber has a cellular circular structure. They lack eyes, have a reduced hypopharynx and a well developed postnotum.

Species

, four species are recognized in this genus. '' A. mirum'', the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of this genus, was described by Clay in the same paper which named the genus ''Apterygon''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

came from a

North Island brown kiwi The North Island brown kiwi (''Apteryx mantelli''; ''Apteryx australis'' or ''Apteryx bulleri'' as before 2000, still used in some sources) is a species of kiwi that is widespread in the northern two-thirds of the North Island of New Zealand and ...

which was killed by a car in Opotiki, New Zealand. It is found in New Zealand's North Island. Clay described a second species for this genus, '' A. hintoni'', in 1966. Its

type host In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was a

great spotted kiwi The great spotted kiwi, great grey kiwiDavies, S. J. J. F. (2003) or roroa (''Apteryx haastii'') is a species of kiwi endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. The great spotted kiwi, as a member of the ratites, is flightless. It is the large ...

and its type locality was

Nelson, New Zealand (Let him, who has earned it, bear the palm) , image_map = Nelson CC.PNG , mapsize = 200px , map_caption = , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = ...

. It is found in New Zealand's South Island. In 1972, B. K. Tandan described a third species, '' A. dumosum'', based on specimens from a Stewart Island brown kiwi on

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

, New Zealand. It is found throughout New Zealand. In addition to the Stewart Island brown kiwi, it parasitizes the

South Island brown kiwi The southern brown kiwi, tokoeka, or common kiwiDavies, S. J. J. F. (2003) (''Apteryx australis'') is a species of kiwi from South Island, New Zealand. Until 2000 it was considered conspecific with the North Island brown kiwi, and still is b ...

and the

little spotted kiwi The little spotted kiwi or little grey kiwi (''Apteryx owenii'') is a small flightless bird in the kiwi family Apterygidae. It is the smallest species of all five kiwis, at about , about the size of a bantam. It is endemic to New Zealand, and in ...

. The fourth species to be described was '' A. okarito'', whose description by Ricardo L. Palma and Roger D. Price was published in 2004. Its type host is the

Okarito kiwi The Okarito kiwi (''Apteryx rowi''), also known as the rowi or Okarito brown kiwi, is a member of the kiwi family Apterygidae, described as new to science in 2003. The species is part of the brown kiwi complex, and is morphologically very s ...

, found in Okarito, New Zealand. It is only found in Westland in New Zealand's South Island.

Hosts

Lice in this genus are ectoparasites of all species of

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also refe ...

(''Apteryx''). The only other lice which parasitize kiwi are in the subgenus ''

Rallicola ''Rallicola'' is a genus of chewing louse. It is an ectoparasite of rails and other birds. It was named by Thomas Harvey Johnston and Launcelot Harrison in 1911. There are two subgenera aside from the nominotypical subgenus: ''Aptericola'', whos ...

'' (''Aptericola'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13654708 Lice Insect genera Parasites of birds Endemic fauna of New Zealand Endemic insects of New Zealand