Crab Louse Infestation in Pre-Columbian America

"Royal" pediculosis in Renaissance Italy: lice in the mummy of the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496)

“…The oldest intact head louse egg was found on a hair from an archaeological site in NorthEastern Brazil and dated to 8000 BC (Araujo et al 2000); the oldest such finding in the Old World is 9,000 years old, from a cave in Israel (Zias & Mumcuoglu 1991). The oldest known pubic lice are from the Roman period in Britain (Kenward 2001) and from a 2,000-year-old South American mummy (Rick et al 2002). These archaeological findings clearly indicate that lice were distributed worldwide (Mumcuoglu 2008).…”

Forensic archaeoentomology—An insect fauna from a burial in York Minster

“…Preservation in permafrost, waterlogged or desiccated deposits has provided opportunities for entomological research in connection with burials. Lice have been recovered from Greenlandic and Inca mummies [18][19][20], and the biogeography of the human flea Pulex irritans Linnaeus and its probable South American origins [21], has similarly been added to from mummy finds [22]. Ectoparasite faunas are not restricted to humans and it is the cadaver of a mammoth in Siberia which provides the one evident extinction from the Palaearctic insect fauna during the late Quaternary, the mammoth botfly, Cobboldia rusanovi Grunin [23], which has disappeared along with its host.…”

Paleoepidemiology of Intestinal Parasites and Lice in Pre-Columbian South America

“…Head lice were found still attached to hair fragments of a skeleton dated to 10,000 years in northeastern Brazilian (Araújo et al 2000). Crablouse was also found infecting Peruvian mummies (Rick et al 2002). Rivera et al (2008) This new species proposal is very controversial, but it was proposed due to genetic similitudes found between Pediculus humanus (human body lice) and the Parapediculus (ectoparasite of South American monkeys).…”

“…In the fur of mummified guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus), numerous well-preserved ectoparasites (lice, fleas, mites) could be recovered (Dittmar 2002;Dittmar et al 2003). Moreover, paleoparasitological examination of Amerindian clothes provided parasite finds, such as ectoparasites (Fugassa et al 2007).…”

“…Paleoparasitological research started recently exploring this archaeological site material, and first results are expected to be published soon. Paleoparasitology in Peruvian archaeological remains has a tradition in coprolite (Patrucco et al 1983) and mummy analysis (Fornaciari et al 1992;Salo et al 1994), but also on ectoparasites (Rick et al 2002;Dittmar 2000;Dittmar et al 2003;. Another group interested in paleoparasitological research was recently created by Luis Huamán and Hugo Flores, and their students at the Universidad Cayetano Heredia.…”