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Body louse
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Body louse
The body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus, also known as Pediculus humanus corporis) or clothing louse, informally called the cootie, is a hematophagic ectoparasite louse that infests humans. It is one of three lice which infest humans, the other two being the head louse, and the crab louse or pubic louse.
Body lice may lay eggs on the host's hairs and clothing, but clothing is where the majority of eggs are usually secured.
Since body lice cannot jump or fly, they spread by direct contact with another person or more rarely by contact with clothing or bed sheets that are infested.
Body lice are disease vectors and can transmit pathogens that cause human diseases such as epidemic typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever. In developed countries, infestations are only a problem in areas of poverty where there is poor body hygiene, crowded living conditions, and a lack of access to clean clothing. Outbreaks can also occur in situations where large groups of people are forced to live in unsanitary conditions. These types of outbreaks are seen globally in prisons, homeless populations, refugees of war, or when natural disasters occur and proper sanitation is not available.
Pediculus humanus humanus (the body louse) is indistinguishable in appearance from Pediculus humanus capitis (the head louse), and the two subspecies will interbreed under laboratory conditions. In their natural state, however, they occupy different habitats and do not usually meet. They can feed up to five times a day. Adults can live for about thirty days, but if they are separated from their host they will die within two days. If the conditions are favorable, the body louse can reproduce rapidly. After the final molt, female and male lice will mate immediately. A female louse can lay up to 200–300 eggs during her lifetime.
The life cycle of the body louse consists of three stages: egg, nymph, and adult.
The two P. humanus subspecies are morphologically quite identical. Their heads are short with two antennae that are split into five segments each, compacted thorax, seven segmented abdomen with lateral paratergal plates.
The body louse, it was thought, diverged from the head louse around 107,000 years ago, and this established the latest date for the adoption of clothing by humans. However, recent transcriptome analyses casts doubt on whether lice provide a means to date the origin of clothes since it has found that "body and head lice were almost genetically identical. Indeed, the phenotypic flexibility associated with the emergence of body lice, is probably a result of regulatory changes, perhaps epigenetic in origin, triggered by environmental signals."
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Body louse
The body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus, also known as Pediculus humanus corporis) or clothing louse, informally called the cootie, is a hematophagic ectoparasite louse that infests humans. It is one of three lice which infest humans, the other two being the head louse, and the crab louse or pubic louse.
Body lice may lay eggs on the host's hairs and clothing, but clothing is where the majority of eggs are usually secured.
Since body lice cannot jump or fly, they spread by direct contact with another person or more rarely by contact with clothing or bed sheets that are infested.
Body lice are disease vectors and can transmit pathogens that cause human diseases such as epidemic typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever. In developed countries, infestations are only a problem in areas of poverty where there is poor body hygiene, crowded living conditions, and a lack of access to clean clothing. Outbreaks can also occur in situations where large groups of people are forced to live in unsanitary conditions. These types of outbreaks are seen globally in prisons, homeless populations, refugees of war, or when natural disasters occur and proper sanitation is not available.
Pediculus humanus humanus (the body louse) is indistinguishable in appearance from Pediculus humanus capitis (the head louse), and the two subspecies will interbreed under laboratory conditions. In their natural state, however, they occupy different habitats and do not usually meet. They can feed up to five times a day. Adults can live for about thirty days, but if they are separated from their host they will die within two days. If the conditions are favorable, the body louse can reproduce rapidly. After the final molt, female and male lice will mate immediately. A female louse can lay up to 200–300 eggs during her lifetime.
The life cycle of the body louse consists of three stages: egg, nymph, and adult.
The two P. humanus subspecies are morphologically quite identical. Their heads are short with two antennae that are split into five segments each, compacted thorax, seven segmented abdomen with lateral paratergal plates.
The body louse, it was thought, diverged from the head louse around 107,000 years ago, and this established the latest date for the adoption of clothing by humans. However, recent transcriptome analyses casts doubt on whether lice provide a means to date the origin of clothes since it has found that "body and head lice were almost genetically identical. Indeed, the phenotypic flexibility associated with the emergence of body lice, is probably a result of regulatory changes, perhaps epigenetic in origin, triggered by environmental signals."
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