Rallicola

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 kiwi birds, and Huiacola, a monospecific subgenus consisting of Rallicola extinctus, once found on the huia.

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.

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.

As of 2017^[update], 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.