Thermal niche partitioning and phenology of Nearctic and Palearctic flea (Siphonaptera) communities on rodents (Mammalia: Rodentia) from five ecoregions.

Seasonality of fleas (Siphonaptera) may be due to species competition, prompting the idea that flea species partition temperature, along with correlated variables such as moisture (thermal-niche partitioning hypothesis). I compared the fleas of five rodent-flea communities described from the literature for thermal-niche optima by fitting non-linear LRF (Lobry-Rosso-Flandrois) curves to examine whether flea species in a community show distinct, partitioned thermal niches. LRF curves estimate physiological parameters of temperature minimum, optimum, maximum, and maximum abundance, and facilitate comparison between species by summarizing seasonal data.

Flea (Siphonaptera) species richness in the Great Basin Desert and island biogeography theory.

Numbers of flea (Siphonaptera) species (flea species richness) on individual mammals should be higher on large mammals, mammals with dense populations, and mammals with large geographic ranges, if mammals are islands for fleas. I tested the first two predictions with regressions of H. J.

Observations and larval descriptions of fleas (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae, Ctenophthalmidae, Ishnopsyllidae) of the southern flying squirrel, little brown bat, and Brazilian free-tailed bat (Mammalia: Rodentia, Chiroptera).

Larvae of the four fleas infesting nests of the southern flying squirrel, Glaucomys volans colans (L.) [Conorhinopsylla stanfordi Stewart, Epitedia faceta (Rothschild), Opisodasys pseudarctomys (Baker), and Orchopeas howardi (Baker)], and of the bat fleas Myodopsylla insignis (Rothschild) and Sternopsylla distincta texana (C. Fox), associated with the bats Myotis lcifuigus (Le Conte) and Tadarida brasiliensis (I.

Mammal and flea relationships in the Great Basin Desert: from H. J. Egoscue's collections.

Host-parasite association among 58 flea species parasitizing 40 mammal species in the Great Basin Desert of the western United States was investigated. Increased flea species richness was correlated with larger geographic ranges and stable locomotion of hosts. Hosts from habitats of moderately low productivity (sage and grass) and of Peromyscus maniculatus size, 10-33 g, had the highest flea species richness.

Insecticide susceptibilities of cat fleas (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) from several regions of the United States.

Eleven cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouchè), strains, seven field-collected and four laboratory-colonized, were assayed for susceptibilities to five insecticides (carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, malathion, permethrin, and pyrethrin) with an insecticide-treated, horizontally-oriented, Nylon 6,6 disk in a test tube. The pyrethrin was synergized using piperonyl butoxide (PBO). Flea mortality at two doses was recorded after 4 and 24 h exposures.