Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Brief descriptive ecology: what do fleas do?
- 1 Composition of the order
- 2 Hosts of Siphonaptera
- 3 Geographical distribution of fleas
- 4 Origin and evolution of fleas
- 5 Life cycles
- 6 Fleas and humanity
- Part II Functional ecology: how do fleas do what they do?
- Part III Evolutionary ecology: why do fleas do what they do?
- References
- Index
2 - Hosts of Siphonaptera
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Brief descriptive ecology: what do fleas do?
- 1 Composition of the order
- 2 Hosts of Siphonaptera
- 3 Geographical distribution of fleas
- 4 Origin and evolution of fleas
- 5 Life cycles
- 6 Fleas and humanity
- Part II Functional ecology: how do fleas do what they do?
- Part III Evolutionary ecology: why do fleas do what they do?
- References
- Index
Summary
Fleas are characteristic parasites of birds and mammals. Occurrences of fleas on reptiles are accidental (e.g. Tillyard, 1926; Dunnet & Mardon, 1974), although they are able to digest blood of these hosts (Belokopytova et al., 1983; Vashchenok, 1988). Accidentally, fleas are able to feed even on haemolymph of ticks (Bilyalov et al., 1989). In this chapter, I address general patterns of distribution of fleas within the two classes of higher vertebrates.
Avian and mammalian hosts
The majority of fleas parasitize mammals (more than 94% of species: Vashchenok, 1988; Beaucournu et al., 2005), whereas their association with birds is much less frequent. Analysing host associations of 1951 flea species, Medvedev (1997a, b) found that fleas were recorded on 16 mammalian and 21 avian orders. Furthermore, 1835 of the 1951 species analysed were harboured by 1606 mammalian hosts, whereas only 214 species were recorded on 543 bird hosts. Among the latter, only 60 species (about 3% of the total number of flea species) can be considered as specific bird parasites (Medvedev, 1997a, b).
The number of flea–mammal associations compared with flea–bird associations suggests that fleas are mainly parasites of mammals. Parasitism on birds is, thus, secondary, and fleas parasitic on birds are commonly thought to have originated from fleas parasitic on mammals, with this switch occurring at least 16 times during the siphonapteran evolution (Hopkins, 1957; Holland, 1964).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of FleasA Model for Ecological Parasitology, pp. 9 - 17Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008