The sex ratio distortion in the human head louse is conserved over time.

ABSTRACT:

Background

At the turn of the 19th century the first observations of a female-biased sex ratio in broods and populations of the head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis, had been reported. A study by Buxton in 1940 on the sex ratio of lice on prisoners in Ceylon is still today the subject of reanalyses. This sex ratio distortion had been detected in ten different countries. In the last sixty years no new data have been collected, especially on scalp infestations under economically and socially more developed conditions.

Results

Here we report a female bias of head lice in a survey of 480 school children in Argentina. This bias is independent of the intensity of the pediculosis, which makes local mate competition highly unlikely as the source of the aberrant sex ratio; however,

SUBMITTER: Perotti MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC428572 | biostudies-literature | 2004 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature