Roger Price, Kevin Johnson and Bob Dalgleish have done me the honor of naming a second new louse species after me. This compliments Neopsittaconirmus vincesmithi (suborder Ischnocera), which was named after me late last year from Bourke's parrot (Neopsephotus bourkii).

Two friends and colleagues (Kevin Johnson and Roger Price) recently described and named a new parrot louse species in my honour. The louse (Neopsittaconirmus vincesmithi) was described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. This paper includes descriptions of two other species named after friends from the University of Utah (Sarah Bush and Dale Clayton). It is humbling to note that whatever I achieve for the rest of my career, my most enduring academic legacy may be this louse! My name (even if the species is subsequently synonymized) will be immortalized in the species description, along with the accompanying illustrations, specimens and metadata for perpetuity.

Cost-effective methods for creating durable labels are critical for the long-term preservation of biological specimens. Deterioration of specimen labels can render specimens scientifically valueless, and while the practice of writing labels with India Ink or pencil on cotton rag paper has stood the test of time, it is time-consuming and subject to human error.

A few days ago I was asked by Elizabeth Pennisi of Science to comment on a new paper by David Reed and collaegues at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Last week I received the news that the distinguished marine biologist Mel Carriker died of a massive stroke at the age of 92. Mel's father (Meb A. Carriker, 1879–1965), was one of the most prolific collectors of Neotropical birds in the history of ornithology. Meb was also the worlds leading authority on my favourite group of chewing lice - the Heptapsogasteridae, which parasitize Tinamiform birds (Tinamou) of South America.

Many of the messages I sent out on the evening of Friday 9th and most on Monday 12th of Feb were not received. More importantly, much of the incoming mail to v.smith@nhm.ac.uk from 9-13 (especially on Sunday 11th Feb) never arrived. In all instances the sender will not be aware of this (i.e. the messages didn't bounce). If you tried to contact me over this period and I haven't replied, please try again!

I have updated my "about me" page on this site, and since some of this arguably belongs in my blog, I thought I'd post a pointer here for those interested.

A huge leap in the study of parasitic lice was announced today. The first draft of the human body louse genome (Pediculus humanus humanus) was released on VectorBase. This louse is the primary vector of Rickettsia prowazekii which causes Epidemic typhus.