Sucking lice (Insecta, Anoplura) from indigenous Sulawesi rodents: A new species of Polypax from a montane shrew rat, and new information about Polypax wallacei and P. eropepli

Polypax melasmothrixi, a new species of polyplacid sucking louse, is described from Melasmothrix naso, a small bodied shrew rat known only from upper montane rain forest in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The male of Polypax wallacei is described from specimens collected from Bunomys chrysocomus trapped in lowland evergreen rainforest in Central Sulawesi. A further specimen of Polypax eropepli, a taxon known only from the type series, is documented from Eropeplus canus from tropical upper montane rain forest also in Central Sulawesi. Host and habitat associations for these three species of sucking lice are discussed. Polypax melasmothrixi and P. eropepli are both known only from montane habitats and both appear to be host specific (to M. naso and E. canus, respectively). Contrastingly, P. wallacei parasitises two species of Bunomys in lowland forests and is know from North and Central Sulawesi.