CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The insects known as Hemiptera are not a particularly glamorous bunch. This group includes stink bugs, bed bugs, litter bugs, scale insects and aphids. Their closest relatives are thrips, bark lice, and parasitic lice. But with a massive number of species, two-thirds of which are still unknown to science, these insects together […]
CHAMPAIGN, lll. – Birds of a feather flock together and—according to a new analysis—so do their lice. A study of the genetic heritage of avian feather lice indicates that their louse ancestors first colonized a particular group of birds (ducks or songbirds, for example) and then “radiated” to different habitats on those birds – to […]
CHAMPAIGN, lll. – A new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early—perhaps even the first—animal hosts of lice. Read the full story from the University of Illinois News Bureau here.
Kevin Johnson, INHS ornithologist with a passenger pigeon from the INHS bird collection.