diff --git a/src/neigh_request.cpp b/src/neigh_request.cpp
index 37da50eaea..dc38205d55 100644
--- a/src/neigh_request.cpp
+++ b/src/neigh_request.cpp
@@ -99,9 +99,8 @@ NeighRequest::NeighRequest(LAMMPS *_lmp) : Pointers(_lmp)
 
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
-NeighRequest::NeighRequest(LAMMPS *_lmp, int idx, void *ptr, int num) : NeighRequest(_lmp)
+NeighRequest::NeighRequest(LAMMPS *_lmp, void *ptr, int num) : NeighRequest(_lmp)
 {
-  index = idx;
   requestor = ptr;
   requestor_instance = num;
 }
diff --git a/src/neigh_request.h b/src/neigh_request.h
index 13b5b11466..9f2d56add8 100644
--- a/src/neigh_request.h
+++ b/src/neigh_request.h
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ class NeighRequest : protected Pointers {
   friend class FixIntel;
 
  protected:
-  int index;                 // index of which neigh request this is
   void *requestor;           // class that made request
   int requestor_instance;    // instance of that class (only Fix, Compute, Pair)
   int id;                    // ID of request as stored by requestor
@@ -122,7 +121,7 @@ class NeighRequest : protected Pointers {
   // methods
  public:
   NeighRequest(class LAMMPS *);
-  NeighRequest(class LAMMPS *, int, void *, int);
+  NeighRequest(class LAMMPS *, void *, int);
   NeighRequest(NeighRequest *);
   ~NeighRequest() override;
 
diff --git a/src/neighbor.cpp b/src/neighbor.cpp
index 298ec29994..6af4094a21 100644
--- a/src/neighbor.cpp
+++ b/src/neighbor.cpp
@@ -2163,13 +2163,13 @@ int Neighbor::request(void *requestor, int instance)
       memory->srealloc(requests,maxrequest*sizeof(NeighRequest *), "neighbor:requests");
   }
 
-  requests[nrequest] = new NeighRequest(lmp, nrequest, requestor, instance);
+  requests[nrequest] = new NeighRequest(lmp, requestor, instance);
   nrequest++;
   return nrequest-1;
 }
 
 /* ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-   called by other classes to request a pairwise neighbor list
+  add_request() is called by other classes to request a pairwise neighbor list
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
 NeighRequest *Neighbor::add_request(Pair *requestor, int flags)