Catching up: A Comprehensive Taxonomic Update of the Psocodea Species File
25 May 2023 - Species File Group
The Species File Group is happy to report that a long awaited update to the Psocodea Species File (PSF) was completed on 5/16/2023.
Some background. In the early 2000s, lice researchers showed that the parasitic lice (at that time Order Phthiraptrera) evolved from within the bark lice (at that time Order Psocoptera). This left the latter paraphyletic with regard to Phthiraptera, leading researchers to sink Phthiraptera within Psocoptera, below suborder Troctomorpha, and to rename the new inclusive order Psocodea. Keeping track and summarizing ongoing scientific work like this takes (a lot of!) time and expertise.
Due to time constraints and a later changing of personnel curating PSF, the regular input of data into Phthiraptera was placed on indefinite hold. This project was finally tackled last year and the taxonomic research on Phthiraptera from the past 23 years has now been entered, filtered from over 900 papers on the group published during that timespan.
To chew through these data for yourself (pun intended), visit the Psocodea Species File. 📢 Later in 2023 these data will move to TaxonWorks. We hope this transition provides an opportunity for the broader community to participate in curating the PSF. The transition will also enable new programmatic ways to access the data giving additional benefits to the decades of curatorial effort behind the project.
Work done by Researcher Heidi Hopkins from the Species File Group
Note: image of parasitic louse is copyright free.