Siphonapterans (Order Siphonaptera)

LARESCHI MARCELA

Concepts in Animal Parasitology

Zea Books (Coordinator Paul Royster, University Libraries, University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Año: 2023; p. 1 - 26

Adult fleas (Siphonaptera) are highly specialized holometabolous arthropods adapted to parasitic life and morphologically very different from other insects. The body is laterally compressed, covered by hard spines directed backwards highly. Both males and females feed exclusively on host blood, which also serves as food for the larvae that ingest it digested in the feces of adult fleas (Marshall, 1981; Linardi and Guimarães, 2000; Medvedev and Krasnov, 2006). Fleas are parasites of birds and mammals, but their greatest specific richness is associated with rodents. Of the nearly 3,000 species and subspecies placed in 19 families that are currently known worldwide (Lewis, 1998; Whiting et al., 2008)