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Letters from louse unopened (4)

I know the answer, but cannot understand the wordplay, so can anyone help me with it please?

aphis is a louse

headless or without a gives phis are greek letters

Thanks. I understood the answer itself. I'm not convinced "unopened" is a reasonable indication that the first letter of "aphis" should be removed.

I'm not convinvced by "phis" - "aphis" is not a louse, it's an aphid (blackfly, greenfly etc.) and "phis" has me stalled on the bottom left:
22a Oil the wheels with S&M . . . and bondage? (8) would be H???T?S? with the H from "phis" and 24a Instrument-maker's to stop drinking wine when drunk (8) would be S???N?A? with the S from "phis". Any suggestions?

Phis is right Chris

On the S&M one it is an anagram that has something to do with ancient slavery

On the other instrument maker is the definition- and an anagram of wine is in the middle-

Link for louse-http://bugguide.net/node/view/483902

Thanks for that - finished now. Very obscure louse!