Word: lice
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Allow me to recall only two of the early adventures of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, D.S.O., featured in your July 2 issue as the world's leading bird-lice catcher...
...Lice, therefore, are often an indication of relationship between species. Often two kinds of birds that look very different to man appear much the same from a louse's point of view. If the birds are infested by similar lice, there is a good chance that they descended from a common ancestor. Certain lice carried by flamingos, for instance, indicate that flamingos are related to ducks and not related to storks. There is not much chance that flamingos recently picked up duck lice. Lice are timid pioneers, and only rarely colonize unfamiliar birds...
...Mallophaga are already known-far more than are needed to fit all the special niches. So, many of the species must have been formed by such evolutionary forces as change of environment. Because each kind of louse is limited to certain birds, it is easy for groups of lice to get out of touch with the main body of their kind. When birds cross a natural barrier, such as a desert or mountain range, the lice they carry become like animals living on an island. They often change in the course of time, as island animals...
Their reproductive organs, for instance, are extremely "plastic." Some male lice have their genital openings in their backs; others have them underneath. Some depend on strong antennae for clasping the females. The females also vary, and even a short period of isolation may bring significant changes. Such drifting apart, say the colonel and Theresa, has often created new species of lice...
...colonel and Theresa believe that their own ecological niche, the Mallophaga, contains enough scientific nourishment to support them indefinitely. This year they plan to visit India and Assam. Many new lice are awaiting them there, though political instability, as the colonel remarks regretfully, makes it more difficult for them to reach the lousy birds...