Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 27. (Budapest, 1994)

sent authors made Eichler (1963) to introduce a binominal nomenclature for the suborders. Kim and Ludwig (1982) used anatomic and biological characters for a cladistic reconsideration of the orders Mallophaga, Anoplura and Psocoptera. On the other hand, the same author divided the order Mallophaga into three suborders: Amblycera, Ischnocera and Rhynchophthirina. Although this division is not based on undisputable arguments, this system is preferred in the present paper. The taxonomic positions of the taxa from families to species are based on the work of Eichler (1963). He accepted 16 amblyceran and 21 ischnoceran families. According to Clay (1963), the suborder Rhynchophthirina is represented by two species only. We still lack an approprite taxonomic revision of the genera and species of Mallophaga. The checklist of Hopkins and Clay (1952) names 2666 species and subspecies. Rothchild and Clay (1957) estimated the number of chewing louse species at about 25,000, but Timmermann (1957) suggested that a more realistic estimation would be about 4-5 thousand species. Finally Eichler (1963) expressed his view that the total number of chewing louse species may exceed 48,000. There are about 1,500 described species known from Europe. In Hungary the occurrence of roughly 800 species can reasonably be expected while only 380 species have already been collected and identified. Most of these are feather lice (see Rékási 1993 for review). Within the mammals, chewing lice are harboured by a few groups only. Carnivores and ungulates are parasitized in Europe, but not rodents. The European stocks of two South-American species, i.e. the Guinea pig and the coypu retain their chewing lice characteristic of South-American rodents. The Guinea pig may host three amblyceran species. The European mammals harbour exclusively ischnoceran chewing lice. Mammalian lice have been poorly studied in Hungary. Data were first published by Giebel (1874). Azary (1888) described 5 anopluran species from domestic animals. Kohaut's fauna catalogue (1897) lists 7 chewing louse species known from Hungary. Csíki (1904) found 5 anopluran species on domestic animals and mentioned chewing lice of the house-mouse, ground vole, common shrew, forest dormouse, striped field mouse, wood mouse, red squirrel, brown hare, domestic rabbit, dog, goat and cattle (most of these are presumably erroneous observations). Pongrácz (1914) lists 1 species of the amblyceran family Gyropidae and 11 of the ischnoceran family Trichodectidae. Dudich (1924, 1928) extended the list to 5 species of 3 amblyceran families and 15 species of 1 ischnoceran family. Kopek (1928) reviewed the information available on Mallophaga from a veterinary medical viewpoint. Shäfer (1964) published phylogenelic studies on chewing lice. Piotrowski (1970) reconsidered the mammalian chewing lice of Hungary. His work was based on the collection of the Zoological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum and his own data. He supplied a critical overview of the previous literature and a detailed list of the localities of collections. He collected a species new for the Hungarian fauna, i.e. Cervicola meyeri parasitizing a red deer in a zoo. Rékási (1979, 1983, 1984, 1990) used the collections of the Zoological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, that of the Mátra Museum, Gyöngyös and his own data to describe occurrences of Trichodectes metis from the badger, Stachiella erminae from the stoat, S. mustelae from the weasel aná Felicola subrostratus from the domestic cat. He also investigated cases of accidental