The head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is an obligate ectoparasite of humans: a wingless insect that spends its whole life on the human scalp and feeds only on human blood. It is closely related to the body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus), which lives in clothing, and more distantly to the pubic louse. Adults are 2.5 to 3 millimetres long, flattened and grey, with short legs ending in a claw and an opposing thumb for gripping hair, so they cannot jump and travel mainly by close head-to-head contact. A female lays about three or four eggs a day, glued near the base of hairs, and the eggs hatch in six to nine days. The young pass through three nymphal stages and become adults in 18 to 24 days, and adults live three to four weeks. Infestation is most common in children between 4 and 14 years of age, and it is not known to carry disease.
Sources
Head louse, Wikipedia
In Group: Fleas And Lice, Development and nymphsQuote, In Group: Fleas And Lice, Development and nymphs
Head lice, like other insects of the order Phthiraptera, are hemimetabolous.
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