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Influence of host ecology and morphology on the diversity of Neotropical bird lice.

The family of bird lice is a very extensive one, embracing many genera, and several hundred species.

They are known as Mallophaga, or bird lice, though some occur on the hair of mammals.

It is uncommon to meet with a flock of fowls that are not hosts for one or more of the many different varieties of bird lice.

The family Pediculina, or true lice, is higher than the bird lice, their mouth parts, as well as the structure of the head, resembling the true Hemiptera, especially the bed bug.