Chewing lice (phthiraptera) species found on birds along the Aras River, lgdir, Eastern Turkey

Chewing lice were sampled from the birds captured and ringed between September-October 2009 at the Aras River (Yukarı Çıyrıklı, Tuzluca, Iğdır) bird ringing station in eastern Turkey. Eighty-one bird specimens of 23 species were examined for lice infestation. All lice collected from the birds were placed in separate tubes with 70% alcohol. Louse specimens were cleared in 10% KOH, mounted in Canada balsam on glass slides and identified under a binocular light microscope. Sixteen out of 81 birds examined (19.75%) were infested with at least one chewing louse specimens. A total of 14 louse species were found on birds. These were: Austromenopon durisetosum (Blagoveshtchensky, 1948), Actornithophilus multisetosus (Blagoveshtchensky, 1940), Anaticola crassicornis (Scopoli, 1763), Cummingsiella ambigua (Burmeister, 1838), Menacanthus alaudae (Schrank, 1776), Menacanthus curuccae (Schrank, 1776), Menacanthus eurysternus (Burmeister, 1838), Menacanthus pusillus (Niztsch, 1866), Meromenopon meropis (Clay&Meinertzhagen, 1941), Myrsidea picae (Linnaeus, 1758), Pseudomenopon scopulacorne (Denny, 1842), Rhynonirmus scolopacis (Denny, 1842), and Trinoton querquedulae (Linnaeus, 1758). Four specimens of Holomenopon sp. collected from Nortern Pintail (Anas acuta), one specimen of Menacanthus sp. collected from European Robin (Erithacus rubeculae), and Menacanthus sp. collected from Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) were not identified. Seven louse species; A. multisetosus, C. ambigua, M. alaudae, M. curuccae, M. eurysternus, M. picae, and P. scopulacorne are first records for Turkey.