Rallicola

Key takeaways

Rallicola belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rallicola to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rallicola from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rallicola is a genus of chewing louse. It is an ectoparasite of rails and other birds. It was named by Thomas Harvey Johnston and Launcelot Harrison in 1911. There are two subgenera aside from the nominotypical subgenus: Aptericola, whose species are found on kiwis, and Huiacola, a monospecific subgenus consisting of Rallicola extinctus, once found on the huia.

Taxonomic history In 1866, Ferdinand Rudow circumscribed the Philopteridae genus Trabeculus with Trabeculus schillingi as its type species. In 1870, he created a new genus, Oncophorus with the same type species, making it an objective junior synonym of Trabeculus. In 1880, Édouard Piaget added more species to Oncophorus. He listed the author citation as "Rud." for Rudow in 1880, but as "m." for mihi to indicate himself in 1885. Thomas Harvey Johnston and Launcelot Harrison created a new genus name, Rallicola, in 1911. A new name was needed as Oncophorus Piaget, 1880 and Oncophorus Rudow, 1870 had a senior homonym and senior synonym, respectively. They only included Oncophorus Piaget, 1880 species that parasitized rails and jacanas, leaving those that parasitized owls and hornbills to other genera. In 1915, Harrison split the genus into three subgenera: Rallicola (Rallicola) for species found on Rallidae (rails), Rallicola (Parricola) for those species found on Parridae, and Rallicola (Aptericola) for species found on Apterygidae (kiwis). Harrison's 1916 list of Mallophaga species recognized sixteen valid species in Rallicola, one in Parricola and three in Aptericola. In 1990, Eberhard Mey described a new species, Huiacola extinctus and circumscribed a new genus, Huiacola for it. Huiacola was subsequently classified as a subgenus of Rallicola.

Type species Johnston and Harrison designated "O. attenuatus N." as its type species. This referred to a species Christian Ludwig Nitzsch named Philopterus (Nirmus) attenuatus, which Édouard Piaget included in his 1880 taxonomy of Oncophorus. However, Nitzch's use of this name was nomen nudum as it was only accompanied with a queried indication to a previously-described taxon, namely Franz von Paula Schrank's 1781 description of Pediculus ortygometrae. The name only became available in 1838 as Nirmus attenatus, when Hermann Burmeister provided the same indication to Schrank but without marking it as questionable.

Synonyms As of 2017, six synonyms for this genus are recognized. Hopkins and Clay designated Oncophorus bisetosus Piaget, 1880 as the type species of Piaget's Oncophorus. Harrison listed the type species of his subgenus Parricola as "Rallicola (Parricola) sulcata Piaget", i.e., Oncophorus sulcatus Piaget, 1880. Three of its junior synonyms were named and circumscribed by M. A. Carriker, Jr. Carriker named the genus Furnaricola in 1944; his circumscription included its type species F. acutifrons (with two subspecies, F. a. acutifrons and F. a. subsimilis) as well as F. cephalosa, F. chunchotambo, F. heterocephala, F. laticephala, F. parvigenitalis, and F. titicacae, which were all described in the same work. In a 1949 paper, he created the genus Epipicus for his new species E. scapanoides. In another paper published in 1949, he named the genus Corvicola, which consisted of his newly-described species C. insulana. By 1952, Hopkins and Clay had classified Furnaricola, Epipicus, and Corvicola as junior synonyms of Rallicola. In a 1966 paper, Carriker defended the validity of Furnaricola as a distinct genus. Roger D. Price and K.C. Emerson treated Furnaricola as its own genus in 1987, but in 1993 Price and Dale Clayton concurred with Hopkins and Clay's synonymization. In 1982, Wolfdietrich Eichler circumscribed the genus Psophiicola. Its type species is Liperus foedus Nitzsch in Giebel, 1866, which he transferred from Rallicola. This was the only species included in his circumscription.

Hosts In 1953, Theresa Clay reported that Rallicola have been found on 47 species across 25 genera of Rallidae. Rallicola can also be found on birds in the Aramidae (limpkins), and Psophiidae (trumpeters) families. The sole Huiacola species R. (H.) extinctus was found on the extinct huia bird, in the family Callaeidae. Species in Aptericola are found on Apterygidae (kiwi birds).

Distribution The subgenera Huiacola and Aptericola are both endemic to New Zealand. Species in the subgenus Rallicola can be found in North America, the Pacific Islands, and New Zealand. An undescribed Rallicola (Rallicola) species was recorded in the Galápagos Islands in 2013.

Subgenera and species Three subgenera are recognized, including the nominate subgenus.

Rallicola

Rallicola Johnston & Harrison, 1911. Type species: Nirmus attenuatus Burmeister, 1838. Approximately 90 species, including:

Aptericola Aptericola Harrison, 1915. Type species: Rallicola (Aptericola) gadowi Harrison, 1915. Four species:

Huiacola Huiacola Mey, 1990. Type species: Huiacola extinctus Mey, 1990. One species:

†Rallicola extinctus (Mey, 1990) - coextinct; host huia

References

Works cited

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rallicola

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rallicola claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rallicola before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rallicola ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rallicola

In research: Rallicola appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rallicola in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rallicola is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Insect genera, Lice, Parasites of birds, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rallicola outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Rallicola in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rallicola means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rallicola out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rallicola in simple terms?

Rallicola is a genus of chewing louse. It is an ectoparasite of rails and other birds.

Why does Rallicola matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rallicola?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rallicola.