The fleas of North America : classification, identification, and geographic distribution of these injurious and disease-spreading insects /

Abstract

The fleas of the United States have been carefully studied, partly at least because of the existence of sylvatic plague and murine typhus. But they have not been monographed since BAKER (1904), though the second author of the present paper revised the species known from the eastern United States in 1940. The present paper deals with some 60 genera and 209 species. The authors give a considerable amount of information which would be valuable to workers in other continents. There is a detailed account of the structure of head, thorax and terminal abdominal segments, and a full description of the anatomical characters of the Order Siphonaptera. The authors recognize six families (all occur in N. America), taking in this respect a rather conservative view: the key to families and subfamilies, and descriptions of these units will be generally useful. Genera are also diagnosed, but (rather unfortunately) species are not described nor are keys provided. It is therefore generally impossible to identify species from this monograph. Species are, however, listed, with data on synonymy, type host and locality, and range. It is a matter of some interest to know that for many years Xenopsylla cheopis appeared to be confined to large ports. Since 1925, however, it has been found in a number of inland areas, including States so far north as Iowa and Minnesota; it is now recorded from 19 States (six of them inland) and the District of Columbia. P. A. Buxton.