Oleg Zabluda's blog
Monday, November 26, 2012
 
Louse is very animal-specific.
Louse is very animal-specific. In Human/Chimpanzee common ancestor, they were running around head-to-tail, but when humans lost body hair ~6Mya, that lice became stranded on the head, where it evolved into Human Head Louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) "Головная вошь". In school we were warned not to borrow military berets from other classes, or we may get head lice. Head lice carry no deceases.

Head louse can't live on pubic hair, which is much thicker, similar to Gorilla hair. ~3.6Mya, humans acquired Pubic Louse (Pthirus pubis) "Лобковая вошь" aka crabs, from Gorilla Louse (Pthirus gorillae) "Вошь гориллы", either via having sex with them or via hunting them au naturel, or sleeping in their nests. We will never know. Pubic louse carry no deceases.

~0.5 Mya, humans acquired 2 more varieties of head lice from other hominins in Asia. One is present only in America and Asia, and the other only in Nepal and Ethiopia. 

When humans invented clothes ~100 Kya, new varieties of Body Louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) "Платяная/нательная вошь" began to continuously evolve from Head Louse. Body lice need clothes to survive. It is indistinguishable in appearance from the head louse, and under laboratory (but not natural) conditions they will interbreed. Body lice carry epidemic typhus (сыпной тиф), trench fever, and relapsing fever (Возвратный тиф).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_louse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_louse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_louse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_louse

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