flea

flea, (order Siphonaptera), any of a group of bloodsucking insects that are important carriers of disease and can be serious pests. Fleas are parasites that live on the exterior of the host (i.e., are ectoparasitic). As the chief agent transmitting the Black Death (bubonic plague) in the Middle Ages, they were an essential link in the chain of events that resulted in the death of a quarter of the population of Europe.

General features

Fleas are small, wingless insects with a tough cuticle bearing many bristles and frequently combs (ctenidia) of broad, flattened spines. The adult flea varies from about 0.1 to 0.32 cm (0.039 to 0.13 inch) in length and feeds exclusively on the blood of mammals (including humans) and birds. With about 2,000 species and subspecies known, the order is still a small one compared with many other groups of insects. However, it is widely distributed with some—such as the rat flea and the mouse flea—having been carried all over the world by humans. Native species of fleas are found in polar, temperate, and tropical regions.

Importance

Infestation by fleas may cause severe inflammation of the skin and intense itching. Although many animals acquire partial immunity after constant or repeated attacks, individuals (especially humans) can occasionally become sensitized after exposure and develop allergies. Species that attack people and livestock include the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis), the so-called human flea (Pulex irritans), the dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis), the sticktight flea (Echidnophaga gallinacea), and the jigger, or chigoe, flea (Tunga penetrans). Poultry may be parasitized by the European chicken flea (Ceratophyllus gallinae) and, in the United States, by the western chicken flea (Ceratophyllus niger).

Certain fleas that feed primarily on rodents or birds sometimes attack people, particularly in the absence of their usual host. When rats are dying of bubonic plague, their hungry fleas, themselves infected with plague bacilli and seeking food elsewhere, can transmit the disease to humans, especially in buildings heavily infested with rats. The Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) is the most efficient carrier of plague, but other species of fleas (e.g., Nosopsyllus fasciatus, Xenopsylla brasiliensis, Pulex irritans) can also transmit the disease to people. Although there are occasional cases of plague in tropical and some temperate regions, the disease in humans can be controlled by early diagnosis and antibiotics. Plague (sylvatic plague) is a widespread disease in hundreds of species of wild rodents throughout the world and is maintained in those populations by fleas that parasitize these animals. More than 100 species of fleas are known to be able to be infected by the plague bacillus, and an additional 10 species are implicated as carriers of the classic type of urban plague. (See infection.)

Fleas, particularly Xenopsylla cheopis, are thought to be the principal carriers of murine (endemic) typhus, a rickettsial disease of humans. As in plague, rats and mice are the sources of infection. Fleas are considered important in the maintenance and spread of many locally restricted infections among rodents and other mammals, including tularemia and Russian spring-summer encephalitis. Fleas transmit myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, which is used deliberately to control rabbits in areas where they are severe pests (e.g., in Australia). Fleas are probable carriers of a filarial worm of dogs and serve as the intermediate host of a common tapeworm (Dipylidium caninum) of dogs and cats and occasionally children. If heavily infested, animals can suffer severe damage or be killed by the effects of flea bites and the resultant loss of blood. Fleas are subject to parasitism by external mites, internal nematode worms, and bacterial, fungal, and protozoan infections.

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The female jigger, or chigoe, flea (not to be confused with “chigger,” a larval mite) burrows into the skin of its host, generally on the feet, and lives within a cyst that forms around it. Intense itching accompanies the development and enlargement of the cyst as the abdomen of the pregnant flea swells to the size of a pea; secondary infections may constitute serious complications.