louse

Parasitic insect that lives on mammals. It has a flat, segmented body without wings, and a tube attached to the head, used for sucking blood from its host. (Order Anoplura.)

Some lice occur on humans, including the head louse (Pediculus capitis) and the body louse (P. corporis), a typhus carrier. Pediculosis is a skin disease caused by infestation of lice. Most mammals have a species of lice adapted to living on them. Biting lice belong to a different order of insects (Mallophaga) and feed on the skin, feathers, or hair. Each year 14 million children in the USA alone suffer from head lice.