| Bibliography of Lice |
| The Bibliography of Phthiraptera was established on the Internet, using RefWorks®, on 14 October, 2005. During the first year of availability it received 3,600 'hits'. It presently contains over 9,000 references to the taxonomy, biology and control of chewing and sucking lice, with pdf files of over 3,300 (36.3%) of these citations. Listings are continuously revised and updated. Authors are encouraged to forward new references and pdf files of publications to Phthiraptera Bibliography These references are now available online at RefWorks® which is a "full-service" bibliographic management program. As such you can interface RefWorks with MS Word and automatically insert references and create bibliographies in manuscripts. Or, if you wish, you can download any of these references into your own bibliography program. Links are established for all papers for which pdf files are available. Additional references and pdf files are greatly appreciated. RefWorks navigation is now available in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Japanese, Korean, German |
| Announcements |
The Bird Call of the Río Beni By Melbourne R. Carriker. Published by The Narrative Press. 225 pages Price $26.95 (ISBN: 1589762908) Available from the publisher or your favorite bookstore.
An account by the author, then 18 years old, from his field notes of his father's (Melbourne A. Carriker, Jr.) 1934 expedition to western Bolivia on behalf of the Philadelphia Academy of Science. A list of the birds and the chewing lice collected is appended.
The Meinertzhagen Mystery: The life and legend of a colossal fraud. By Brian Garfield. Published by Potomac Books. 386 pages Price $22.00 (ISBN: 1597970417) Available from the publisher or your favorite bookstore.
Experiences of an Ornithologist Along the Highways and Byways of Boliva. Collecting Birds in an Isolated, Magnificent Land in the Nineteen Thirties. By Melbourne A. Carriker, Jr. Co-edited by his son Melbourne R. Carriker and Robert C. Dalgleish. Published by AuthorHouse. 452 pp. Many black and white photographs. Bird in color on cover. Price: softcover (ISBN 1420882901) $13.50, electronic copy (1420883526) $5.95. Available from bkorders@authorhouse.com
An extraordinarily vivid account by intrepid ornithologist Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr. of his three expeditions in Bolivia collecting birds for the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, travelling from the torrid tropic jungles to the frozen mountain valleys. He collected a total of 8,705 bird specimens, including some new to science, and many new species of bird lice. These species are listed in two extensive appendices in the book.
The author's flair for narration, perceptive observations, memory of detail, fondness of people, knowledge of Spanish and of South America, and ability to get along with Latin Americans, enrich his writing. His lively, colorful, descriptive, often humorous, piquant accounts make highly entertaining reading. He succeeded in transmiting to the reader his own special pleasure in exploration, especially of the high mountains, which he loved, and his keen enjoyment of congenial people. At the same time he did not minimiize the disappointments and hardships that were almost daily companions, and these, too, come across vividly, sometimes poignantly. Incredibly, Carriker survived his travels without major accidents, though he did experience several close calls. He held strong opinions, which he did not hesitate to express; and was strong-minded, a characteristic that was often helpful to him in close adversarial situations.
Carriker was one of the great early naturalists of Central and Northern South America. His long time colleague, Dr. K. C. Emerson of the Smithsonian Institution, once commented of him that changes in ecolgy, laws, and concerns for environment probably would not permit another person to duplicate his collecting efforts. He was also exceptional in that he was not only an expert in the study of tropical bird fauna, but also of bird chewing lice.
The Fourth Edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is available online.
”The process of drafting the 5th Edition Code has already started, with several aspects of the current edition in need of clarification or alteration. As with previous editions, extensive discussion with the Code's users is essential, but the completion of a 5th edition is targeted for 2008.” (ICZN, 2005)
Under consideration is the establishment of an Official Registry of Zoological Names, to wit:
“A proposal for the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) to establish ZooBank, an open-access, mandatory registration system for descriptions of all new taxa and nomenclatural acts in animal taxonomy was published recently (Polaszek et al., 2005) in pdf. That paper is effectively an argument for the establishment of a registration system, proposed by 29 currently active zoologists from a variety of backgrounds.” (ICZN, 2005)
”We appeal to all
biologists whose work
depends on taxonomy
to throw their weight
behind this initiative. ”
(Polaszek et al, 2005)
The genus Aquanirmus Clay and Meinertzhagen, 1939 is restricted to the Podicipediformes: Podicipedidae. A small series of females have been collected from the great grebe, Podiceps major. This is a new host record. If you have a male Aquanirmus from this host please contact Filipe Dantas-Torres at: filipe.vet@globo.com
We owe a debt of gratitude to the late Dr. R. J. Donaldson [JRSH 2005:125(5):197], affectionately known as Paddy, for the fundamental contribution he made to our understanding of head louse control. In the 1970s, while he was the Medical Officer of Health in Teeside, he risked considerable adverse publicity to throw light on this problem, concealed by individuals and communities alike. He insisted it should be managed like any communicable disease by defining the source, reservoir and susceptible host with the appropriate intervention to break the chain of transmission. He led an intensive detection and treatment campaign. Monitoring showed that "Public education is, indeed, a most effective insecticide." 1 The Bug Busting Days organised by Community Hygiene Concern 2, 3 are bult on this solid evidence base. We will sorely miss our tireless mentor, Paddy Donaldson.
Joanna Ibarra BSc. MA FRSH
JRSH 2005. 125(6):248

Donaldson on right. 2003
POSTED: 3:42 am PST December 5, 2005
CHICAGO -- It turns out an experimental head lice treatment that cost $285 really was just a skin cleanser that sells in drugstores for $10.
Dr. Dale Pearlman of Menlo Park, Calif., got a lot of publicity last year when the journal Pediatrics published his study of a treatment for lice that he called Nuvo lotion.
But in a letter to the editor for release Monday in December's Pediatrics, Pearlman said the treatment "was actually Cetaphil cleanser."
Pearlman said he was hoping to get rich. When that didn't happen, he said, he decided to come clean.
A spokesman for the maker of Cetaphil, Galderma Laboratories, says the company didn't know the skin cleanser was being used for the treatment of lice. He said there's no data to indicate whether it works.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
For more on the story, go to here.
Bob Elbel, Research Professor, University of Utah, died, Thursday, 1 December, 2005. He was struck by a car while getting off a bus, on his way home. See attachment for local report. A remeberance by Dale Clayton.
Dear Colleagues,
It is with great sorrow that I have to announce the death, on 21 November, 2005, of Dr. Norman G. Gratz. He was a medical entomologist with a very rich scientific background.
Dr. Gratz was Chief of the Department of Medical Entomology and Head of the Laboratory of Medical Entomology of the Ministry of Health, Jerusalem between the years 1952-1958. During this period he carried out control of murine typhus, tick-borne diseases and arboviruses including an early outbreak of West Nile virus in that country and carried out surveys on insect vectors and rodent reservoirs of disease.
Between 1958 and 1962 he was Project Leader of World Health Organization projects in West Africa (Liberia and Nigeria) on insecticide research for vector control and malaria vector control. Thereafter, and for 24 years (1962-1986) Dr. Gratz worked in World Health Organization HQ in Geneva, Switzerland: From 1970 to 1980 he was Chief of Vector Biology Unit and from 1981 to 1986 he was Director of the Division of Vector Biology and Control. This Division was responsible for supporting and coordinating research on the biology and control of arthropod vectors of disease, the provision of information to other divisions in the WHO including its regional offices, and to governments on the bionomics and control of disease vectors.
Among other honors he was in 1985 the recipient of the Medal of Honor from the American Mosquito Control Association.
Dr. Gratz have published more than 100 articles, chapters, monographs and books on vector and rodent-borne diseases and on mosquitoes, lice, houseflies, household pests, insecticide development and usage and the bionomics and control of rodent reservoirs of human disease including a monograph on dengue published by the WHO, Geneva and served as editor for a lengthy manual on the epidemiology of plague, published by the WHO, Geneva and have recently published a manual on human lice and their incidence, their importance as vectors of disease and on their control for the WHO, Geneva.
Recently, he also completed a book entitled “The burden of vector-borne diseases of Europe” which will be published by the European Office of the WHO.
Dr. Gratz was a visiting Professor at the International MPH course at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he gave yearly lecturers on the epidemiology and control of vector-borne diseases. His curriculum vitae is posted as a pdf file.
Dr. Kosta Y. Mumcuoglu
Lance A. Durden, Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia 30460-8042, U.S.A. is Editor for Sucking Lice, and Bob Dalgleish is Editor for Chewing Lice for Zootaxa, an electronic and hardcopy journal for taxonomic papers in zoology. Manuscripts of taxonomic papers dealing with sucking lice should be sent to Lance at: ldurden@georgiasouthern.edu and chewing lice manuscripts to Bob at zootaxa@phthiraptera.org. Manuscripts submitted before 1 December, 2005 are being processed by Lance.

Obituary for Nancy Adams
Nancy Ellen Adams of Reston, Virginia went to serve her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in heaven on August 20, 2005 after a long battle with Lymphoma. Nancy was born in Pensacola, FL on April 21, 1958. She spent her first 20 years growing up on Beachview Drive in Fort Walton Beach, FL where she graduated from Choctawhatchee high school in 1976 and Oskaloosa-Walton Community College with an AA degree in 1978. From there she transferred to Covenant College, Lookout Mountain College, GA, graduating with a BA degree in biology in 1981. She was a teacher/naturalist at the Chattanooga Nature Center and the first teacher/naturalist at Landmark Park in Dothan, AL. In 1983, Nancy started her career in the Entomology Department at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. During her years there, she enjoyed collecting trips to Canada, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago. On her own, she enjoyed visiting insect collection in London, Mexico, Hawaii and dozens of university collection in the continental US, learning from and sharing from colleagues techniques on insect collection management, data and transaction management. She also enjoyed having two catalogues (Siphonaptera, "Anoplura") published on parts of insect collection she managed and has at least eight insects named for her.Nancy enjoyed serving her God on short-term mission trips to other cultures and as an active member of Reston Presbyterian Church. Other joys included canoeing, collecting insects, especially Dragonflies, birding and playing cards.
Nancy is preceded in death by her parents Henderson L. and Gladys M. Adams and brother Hugh M. Adams. Brother Roger H. and his wife Teri A. Adams and nephew, Michael R. Adams and brother Richard W. and his wife Sharon C. Adams and nephews Ryan C. and Travis W. Adams, all of Fort Walton Beach FL, survive her.
A memorial service will be held at Reston Presbyterian Church at 10610 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA 20190 on September 10, 2005 at 1pm.
Nancy´s remains will be cremated by Money and King Funeral Home and sprinkled in the Shenandoah River on a summer canoe trip. Memorial donations may be given to the Lymphoma Society, Reston Presbyterian Church, or The Department of Entomology´s, Improvement of the Insect Collection Fund. (Smithsonian Institution, Entomology MRC – 105, Washington, DC 20013-7012)
Lance Durden dedicates to the memory of Nancy, their paper: Durden, L. A. and N. E. Adams. 2005. Primary type specimens of sucking lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Anoplura) in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Zootaxa 1047:21-60 (published 8 September, 2005) pdf
| Last Updated: 8 September, 2005 | Home | Corrections or Comments |