The

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Haematomyzus'' includes three species 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 recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

that differ so markedly from all other lice that the genus is placed in its own family Haematomyzidae, itself monotypic within the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Rhynchophthirina. These unusual lice are

ectoparasites 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 ...

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

s and

warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly cons ...

s. Their mouthparts are elongated to form a drill-like structure that allows them to penetrate the thick skin of their host.

Taxonomy

The three species, '' Haematomyzus elephantis'' (elephant louse), '' Haematomyzus hopkinsi'' (warthog louse) and '' Haematomyzus porci'' (

red river hog The red river hog (''Potamochoerus porcus'') or bushpig (a named also used for the '' Potamochoerus larvatus''), is a wild member of the pig family living in Africa, with most of its distribution in the Guinean and Congolian forests. It is rarel ...

louse) belong to a single family, the Haematomyzidae, itself the only family within Rhynchophthirina.

Host records

''H. elephantis'' is known from both the African and Asian Elephant.

Notes

The first spelling of "Rhyncophthirina" by Ferris was a lapse, and in subsequent use of the term he spelled it "Rhynchophthirina" adding the second "h". Ordinal names are not covered by the International Code of Nomenclature and thus the name and spelling comes down to a matter of personal preference. The majority of phthirapterists spell the suborder as "Rhynchophthirina" as did Hopkins and Clay, 1952, and Price ''et al.'', 2003.

References

* * Lice Insect genera Insects of Africa Insects of Asia {{Parasite-insect-stub