Morning names: booklouse

Not actually a louse, but it looks a bit like one:

Liposcelis bostrichophila, a globally distributed booklouse

From Wikipedia:

Psocoptera are an order of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. They first appeared in the Permian period, 295–248 million years ago. They are often regarded as the most primitive of the hemipteroids. Their name originates from the Greek word ψῶχος, psokos meaning gnawed or rubbed and πτερά, ptera meaning wings. There are more than 5,500 species in 41 families in three suborders. Many of these species have only been described in recent years.

They range in size from 1–10 millimeters (0.04–0.4 in) in length.

The species known as booklice received their common name because they are commonly found amongst old books — they feed upon the paste used in binding. The barklice are found harmlessly on trees, feeding on algae and lichen.

Booklice can be controlled by keeping the humidity very low.

Linguistic note on

“Psocoptera are an order of insects that are commonly known …”

This is awkward at best. Psocoptera is the name of an order of insects; like the names of many other orders of insects — Hemiptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, etc. — the name is a plural in Greek, but referring to the order in English, it should be treated as grammatically singular:

Psocoptera is an order of insects that are commonly known …

But when referring to the insects, it will be plural:

(The) Psocoptera are insects that are commonly known …

The version above is a cross between the alternatives.

Leave a Reply


%d bloggers like this: