Lice (Anoplura)
Lice collected from the prairie vole were all of one species, Hoplopleura acanthopus (Burmeister). Of 59 voles examined for the presence of lice, 33 were found to be parasitized; the 59 voles had an average of 3.4 lice each. Other mice which used the same runways as the prairie vole had their own species of Anoplura. The cotton rat was host to Hoplopleura hirsuta Ferris, and the two species of Peromyscus were parasitized by Hoplopleura hesperomydis (Osborn).
The writer collected Hoplopleura acanthopus from Microtus californicus at Calaveras Dam, Alameda County, California, and from M. pennsylvanicus at Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. Elton, Ford, Baker, and Gardner (1931) recorded this same species from M. argestis in England.
Lice on the prairie vole are the same species as those found on other species of Microtus in other areas, but since Anoplura of the prairie vole do not parasitize the cotton rat, the white-footed mouse, and the deer mouse, this host specificity of lice makes it unlikely that lice would carry blood parasites from the prairie vole to any of the latter named rodents.