Nature Bulletin No, 292-A   February 3, 1968
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F, Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:LICE

Humorous songs and poems have been written about the flea but there 
is nothing funny about a louse. Fortunately, lice are known to the vast 
majority of cleanly people only by hearsay: as loathsome parasites not 
to be discussed in polite society, However, all warm-blooded animals 
are subject to lice and they are a problem on farms, in menageries and 
circuses, and among wildlife. Human lice, common in pioneer days, are 
still common in slums, "flop houses", prisons, labor camps, and 
especially in wartime -- wherever crowded unsanitary living conditions 
prevail, Body lice or "crumbs" got the name "graybacks" during our 
civil war; and in the trenches of World War I it was a universal pastime 
to "read your shirt for cooties", Head Lice were nicknamed "galloping 
dandruff".

The louse is a small wingless primitive insect, with a flattened body, 
which passes through three stages as an egg, a nymph and an adult. 
There is no metamorphosis: the newly hatched nymph, except in size, 
looks like the adult. The egg or "nit" is glued to a hair or feather of the 
host and the insect spends its whole life on that animal unless it is 
removed or transferred to another of the same kind. In general, each 
species of animal has one or more species of lice peculiar to it. There 
are two types; the sucking lice and the chewing lice.

There are probably 400 species of sucking lice. This type, found only 
on mammals, has a fleshy snout which contains mouthparts for piercing 
the skin and sucking the blood of its host, and this can be greatly 
extended or withdrawn into its head. The eyes, when they have any, are 
very imperfect. Each leg has a large claw and a thumblike projection so 
spaced as to clamp closely around a hair of the particular kind of animal 
on which that species lives. When the insect crawls awkwardly about, 
these claws are as annoying as its bites.

The head louse and the body louse, which attack all races of people, 
have very different habits but are now considered to be varieties of the 
same species. The former lives on the skin of the head and glues its 
eggs to the hairs, like a typical louse. The other is unique in that it lives 
in a person's clothing, lays its eggs in the seams of the clothing, and 
only goes upon the skin to feed. It is very prolific and dangerous. Aside 
from the drain upon its host's vitality from loss of blood and constant 
irritation, with danger of infection from scratching, these lice transmit 
such diseases as typhus fever, causing epidemics which have killed 
millions of people. The only other species attacking man is the crab 
louse. It is not known to transmit any disease and is found only on the 
white and Negro races.

The bloodsucking lice found on domestic animals have longer snouts. 
There are three species found on cattle, two on sheep and goats, one on 
horses, mules and donkeys, one on dogs, and one -- the largest almost 
one-quarter inch long -- on hogs. Unless drastic control measures are 
taken, the beast becomes thin and sickly, with scurf and scabs upon its 
skin where patches of hair have been rubbed off. Its growth and its 
production of meat, milk, wool or labor are seriously affected. Most 
wild mammals, including bats, are also subject to lice.

Chewing lice do not suck blood. They nibble on the skin, feathers or 
hair of the host, run about rather rapidly, and glue their eggs to the 
feathers or hair. Every kind of domestic fowl, and most wild birds, has 
one or more species of chewing lice peculiar to it. These have two 
claws on each leg, whereas most of the chewing lice that attack horses, 
cattle, deer, sheep, goats, rodents, dogs, cats and other mammals, have 
only one claw.

Isn't this a lousy bulletin?