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Table 4 Body length, life-cycle length and number of mitochondrial genes per minichromosome of five species of blood-sucking lice

From: Fragmented mitochondrial genomes of the rat lice, Polyplax asiatica and Polyplax spinulosa: intra-genus variation in fragmentation pattern and a possible link between the extent of fragmentation and the length of life cycle

Species of lice

Pig louse Haematopinus suis

Rat louse Polyplax spinulosa

Human pubic louse Pthirus pubis

Human body louse Pediculus humanus

Human head louse Pediculus capitis

Adult body length (mm)

4-6

0.6-1.5

1.3-2.0

2.3-3.6

2.1-3.3

Length of life cycle (days)

29-48

25-28

16-25

14-20

13-17

Mitochondrial genes per minichromosome

4.1

3.4

2.4

2.1

2.1

  1. Note: The information of body length and life cycle was from Dynum et al. [31], Florence [32], Wall and Shearer [30] and Baker et al. [33] for the pig louse; from Baker [22] and Goodwin et al. [34] for the rat louse; from Buxton [35] and Service [36] for the human pubic louse; and from Buxton [35], Buxton [37] and Service [36] for the human body louse and head louse.