''Colpocephalum californici'', the California condor louse, was a species of

chewing louse The Mallophaga are a possibly paraphyletic section of lice 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 re ...

which parasitized the critically endangered

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to nort ...

. It became extinct when the remaining California condors were deloused and treated with pesticides during a captive breeding program.

Taxonomic history

This species was described in 1963 by Roger D. Price and James R. Beer. They based their description on nine lice (four females, five males), all collected from

s. 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 sever ...

was collected from a California condor in the National Zoological Park, and it was deposited in the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

. The authors wrote in their description: "Since the California condor now is very rare, these nine lice may well represent all that will ever be found." Price and Beer placed the California condor louse in the ''megalops''-

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

alongside '' C. megalops'', '' C. foetens'' and '' C. trichosum''.

Description

Male

The male had two pairs of spine-like

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for " bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. ...

e on the anterior margin of its head, as well as four to eight mid-dorsal head setae. The temple width was and its prothorax width was .

Female

The female had at most four mid-dorsal head setae. Its I and II abdominal segments were only a bit longer than its III segment. The lateral tergocentral setae on segments II and III were not longer than the median setae.

Biology

This louse was reportedly not harmful to its hosts.

Extinction

In the 1980s, all California condors were brought to the

Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The city of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. Animal care, grounds maintenance, construction, ed ...

and the

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

's Wild Animal Park for a captive breeding program. Conservationists treated all the condors with a pesticide to kill their lice, and so ''C. californici'' is now presumed extinct. This species' extinction is an instance of conservation-induced extinction. People were expressing concern about the loss of the California condor louse by the 1990s. One 1990 letter to the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' began, "In the attempt to save certain species from extinction, for example the California condor, the black-footed ferret and so on, how much attention is being given to the natural parasites?" Another letter to ''Nature'' closed with "There may be conflicts in conservation needs, forcing us to bid farewell to the gorilla louse or the lice of the Californian condor while retaining their hosts. If so, we should do so in the full knowledge of what is being lost." The ''C. californici'' extinction is an often-discussed example when emphasizing the importance of parasite conservation both in academic works and elsewhere. One 2011 paper in the '' Annual Review of Entomology'' called this a "poignant example" of the

loss of biodiversity Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, de ...

, and noted that the role this species played in its host's ecology was not fully understood. It has also been pointed out that studying the genetics of ''C. californici'' could have provided information about the California condor's evolutionary history. Biologists have also wondered if the California condors remained parasite free or if generalist parasites, which might cause worse health impacts, later replaced them.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q42428194 Insects described in 1963 Lice Ectoparasites Parasites of birds Extinct invertebrates since 1500 Species made extinct by human activities