Human ectoparasites, including lice, have been recovered from a wide range of archaeological materials. The human head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis, has been identified from mummies and sediments for decades. Louse eggs are the body part most commonly encountered and therefore the most frequently quantified. Typically, several types of microscopy are applied for egg documentation. For studies in which quantification of infestation is a goal, counting is done with the naked eye or with the aid of handheld lenses. For determination and stage classification, stereomicroscopy is commonly used. For more detailed examination of microstructure, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) can be employed. In most reports, researchers use two or more techniques to accomplish interrelated goals. Automontage microscopy is used to document prehistoric arthropods with good success. Herein, we report the results of a combination of SEM and automontage microscopy to document lice and eggs recovered from South American mummies. This combined approach allows for simultaneous examination of internal and external characteristics. Thirty automontage composite images of 2 adult lice and 16 eggs showed that egg internal morphologies were easily examined showing the within-egg anatomy of emergent nymphs. SEM imaging of 9 lice and 129 eggs was completed. In the case of two adults and several eggs, SEM imaging was accomplish after automontage image capture of the same specimens. This one-to-one image comparison of SEM and automontage shows that transmitted light of automontage reveals egg internal structures and details of the adult lice. SEM allows for high magnification examination of egg, nymph and adult microstructures. We conclude that automontage imaging followed by SEM results in efficient graphic documentation of rare louse specimens.

人类体外寄生虫，包括虱子，已经从广泛的考古材料中发现。人头虱，Pediculus humanus capitis, 几十年来一直从木乃伊和沉积物中鉴定出来。虱卵是最常见的身体部位，因此最常被量化。通常，几种类型的显微镜用于鸡蛋文档。对于以量化侵染为目标的研究，可以用肉眼或手持镜头进行计数。对于确定和阶段分类，通常使用立体显微镜。对于微观结构的更详细检查，可以采用光学显微镜、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 和共聚焦激光扫描显微镜 (CLSM)。在大多数报告中，研究人员使用两种或多种技术来实现相互关联的目标。Automontage 显微镜用于记录史前节肢动物并取得了成功。在此处，我们报告了 SEM 和自动蒙太奇显微镜相结合的结果，以记录从南美木乃伊中回收的虱子和卵。这种组合方法允许同时检查内部和外部特征。2 只成年虱子和 16 个卵的 30 张自动合成图像显示，很容易检查卵的内部形态，显示出若虫的卵内解剖结构。完成了 9 个虱子和 129 个卵的 SEM 成像。在两个成虫和几个鸡蛋的情况下，SEM 成像是在对相同样本进行自动蒙太奇图像捕获后完成的。这种 SEM 和自动蒙太奇的一对一图像比较表明，自动蒙太奇的透射光揭示了成年虱子的卵内部结构和细节。SEM 允许对卵、若虫和成虫的微观结构进行高倍放大检查。