Sucking lice (Anoplura) have around 500 species and represent the smaller of the two traditional suborders of lice. The Anoplura are all blood-feeding ectoparasites of mammals. They can cause localised skin irritations and are vectors of several blood-borne diseases.
At least three species of Anoplura are parasites of humans. Pediculus humanus is divided into two subspecies, Pediculus humanus humanus, or the body louse, sometimes nicknamed "the seam squirrel" for its habit of laying of eggs in the seams of clothing, and Pediculus humanus capitis, or the head louse. Phthirus pubis (the pubic louse) is the cause of the embarrassing condition known as crabs.
It is, in fact, probable that the louse now found on modern man is the same or closely related to the species that infested early man. In most periods of history lice have been regarded as something that one lived with, and the job of delousing one another was an important part of family life.
The humanlouse occurs in two forms, the bodylouse and the head louse, and these are very similar to one another.
Body lice are important as vectors of typhus fever, trench fever and louse borne relapsing fever.
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