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Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Official Organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology logoLink to Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Official Organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology
. 2016 Dec 16;41(3):684–686. doi: 10.1007/s12639-016-0866-2

Population characteristics of black kite lice

A K Saxena 1,✉
PMCID: PMC5555912  PMID: 28848259

Abstract

A look on literature revealed that the population characteristics of Phthiraptera infesting Black Kite, Milvus migrans Boddaert deserved investigation. Thirty-two kites were sampled in district Rampur (U.P.) India during January 2011–December 2012, for the presence of phthirapteran ectoparasites. Two amblyceran species, Laemobothrion maximum Scopoli and Colpocephalum turbinatum Denny and one ischnoceran louse, Degeeriella regalis Giebel were recovered. The prevalence, intensity of infestation, sample mean abundance, range of infestation, sex ratios, and adult nymph ratios of three lice were recorded. C. turbinatum ranked first in the order of prevalence and intensity of infestation, followed by D. regalis. The prevalence and intensity of L. maximum was quite low.

Keywords: Phthiraptera, Biting lice, Mallophaga, Black kite lice

Introduction

Population of lice on particular host ranges from nil to thousands per host. Generally, the prevalence and infestation rate together with the number of hosts examined, provide a description of body population of lice on their host (Marshall 1981). The parasite abundance and distribution of parasite have received little attention despite their, diversity and potential impacts on host population and community dynamics (Santiago et al. 2008).

Reports on the population characteristics of phthirapteran ectoparasites infesting selected Indian birds viz. domestic pigeons (Singh et al. 1998; Khan et al. 2009), Common Myna (Chandra et al. 1990; Saxena et al. 2007), house Crows (Beg et al. 2008), Red Avadavats (Gupta et al. 2007), Bank Myna’s (Rajput et al. 2009), House Sparrows, Indian Parakeets, White Breasted Kingfishers (Saxena et al. 2007), Domestic Fowls (Trivedi and Saxena 1991; Trivedi et al. 1992; Saxena et al. 1995, 1997, 2004; Kumar et al. 2004), Red Whiskered Bulbuls (Arya et al. 2010), Common Bayas (Arya et al. 2011), Cattle Egrets (Ahmad et al. 2010), Common Hoopoe (Agarwal et al. 2011), Striated Babblers (Ahmad et al. 2011), Common Snipe (Ahmad et al. 2012), Indian grey Horn Bills (Ahmad et al. 2013), Grey Lag Goose (Kumar et al. 2013), Ring Doves (Singh et al. 2015) and certain other poultry (Khan et al. 2008) have appeared during last twenty-five years. A scrutiny of literature revealed that the population characteristics of phthirapterans occurring on India Black Kites escaped the attention. Elsewhere, information on the population ecology of Galapagos Hawks (Buteo galapagoensis) have been noted by the workers (Santiago et al. 2008; Whiteman and Parker 2004a, b)

The present report furnishes information on the population characteristics of three phthirapteran species infesting India Black Kite, Milvus migrans.

Materials and methods

Thirty-two Black Kites, Milvus migrans were sampled during January 2011–December 2012, in district Rampur (India) located at 28°48′N 79°00′E 28.8.1979. Each bird was examined visually (with the help of magnifying torch), after tying the legs. The lousy hosts were deloused by the modified Fair Isle method (Gupta et al. 2007). The body feathers of fumigated birds were ruffled manually over a plastic sheet to take out the louse load. The head was separately examined after delousing. Deloused birds were released in wild. Entire louse load so obtained was transferred to 70% alcohol and separated species wise, sex wise and stage wise. The prevalence, mean intensity, sample mean abundance, variance to mean ratio, exponent (k) of the negative binomial distribution and index of discrepancy (D) were estimated with the help of software offered by Rozsa et al. 2000. The goodness of fit between the observed and the expected frequencies (negative binomial) was determined by the χ 2 test.

Results

Three phthirapteran species (two amlyceran e.g. Colpocephalum turbinatum Denny; Laemobothrioon maximum Scopoli and one ischnoceran, Degeriella regalis Giebel) were recorded from thirty-two Black Kite, Milvus migrans during 2011–2012, in district Rampur (U.P.) India. Seventy-five percent birds were found infested with phthirapteran ectoparasites (sample mean abundance-62.6/bird; mean intensity-83.5/bird; range of infestation-24–154). Maximum percentage (68%) of birds carried two species. One species infestation was found on 6.2% birds. Simultaneous occurrence of all the three species was encountered on 25% birds. The population characteristics and population structure of all the three species has indicated in Table 1. The prevalence, intensity of infestation and sample mean abundance of amblyceran louse, C. turbinatum were highest, followed by ischnoceran louse, D. regalis.

Table 1.

Population characteristics of three phthirapteran species on Black Kites

S. no. Population parameters Colpocephalum turbinatum Degeeriella regalis Laemobothrion maximum
1 No of bird examined 32 32 32
2 Prevalence (%) 75 68.8 25
3 Mean intensity 45.6 30.3 5.25
4 Median intensity 41 32.5 5.5
5 Sample mean abundance 45.6 27.5 1.3
6 Sample size 24 22 8
7 Total no of specimen recovered 1094 666 42
8 Range of infestation 9–110 8–58 2–9
Aggregation indices
9 Variance/mean ratio 27.7 15.01 4.9
10 Index of discrepancy (D of Poulin) 0.473 0.455 0.782
11 k (Exponent of negative binomial) 0.479 0.423 0.127
Applicability of negative bionomial
12 Degree of freedom 10 16 3
13 Chi square (χ2), p > 0.05 20.341 53.56 10.127
14 Whether conformed to negative binomial Not conformed Not conformed Not conformed
Population structure
15 Male:female 1:2.1 1:1.4 1:1.4
16 Adult:nymphs 1:1.4 1:1.3 1:0.9
17 IN:IIN:IIIN 1:1.4:1.6 1:1.3:1.4 1:5:4
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The prevalence and intensity of infestation of amblyceran louse L. maximum remained lowest. An analysis of three measures of aggregation indices i.e. variance to mean ratio, index of discrepancy (D of Poulin) and the exponent of negative binomial (k) clearly indicated that the frequency distribution patterns of the three species were skewed/clumped but somehow it failed to conform the negative binomial model. In other words, the negative binomial model was not found to be a good fit in case of all the three Black Kite lice. Females outnumbered the males in natural population in case of all the three lice. Nymphal population dominated over the adult population in case of C. turbinatum and D. regalis but not in case of L. maximum.

Discussion

The prevalences of C. turbinatum as well as D. regalis on Black Kites were comparatively lower (75% and 65%, respectively) than that of Galapagos Hawks (93–100% and 72–89%; Whiteman and Parker 2004a, b; Santiago et al. 2008). The sample mean abundance and mean intensity of infestation of C. turbinatum on Galapagos Hawks exhibited considerable variation (20.5–270.6/bird and 22–271/bird respectively). It remained 34.8 and 45.6% on Black Kites during present studies. Likewise, the sample mean abundance and mean intensity of D. regalis exhibited considerable variation on Galapagos Hawks (4.7–22 and 6.5–25/bird) but it remained comparatively high on Black Kites in India (20.8 and 30.2/Black Kite). In other words the abundance of ischnoceran louse, D. regalis on Black Kites was quite higher than that of Galapagos Hawks.

Santiago et al. (2008) have indicated that the abundance and distribution of parasites have received little attention despite their pervasiveness, diversity and potential impact on host population and community dynamics. Whiteman and Parker (2004b) have examined the relationship between host territoriality/body condition versus parasite load of 26 Galapagoes hawk. They concluded that body condition and louse abundance were significantly correlated for C. turbinatum but not for D. regalis and further emphasized that these lice directly reduce the host body condition. They further found that the mean intensity of C. turbinatum were higher than that of D. regalis on both kind of hawks (territorial as well as non territorial). Likewise, prevalence of intensity of C. turbinatum was higher than that of D. regalis on Indian kites also. But, the occurrence of L. maximum on Indian kites ((of course the prevalence and intensity was low) is not a good signal as it is a large sized haematophagus louse. The haematophagus of phthirapterans do not only affect the vitality and productivity of the hosts but are also involved in the transmission of various infectious agents (Saxena et al.1985).

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Principal Govt. Raza P. G. College, Rampur for providing the laboratory facilities.

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