MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PLAGUE VECTOR XENOPSYLLA BRASILIENSIS.

Members of the flea family Pulicidae have been the focus of many studies due to their significance as diseases vectors of medical and veterinary importance and their cosmopolitan distribution. They often exhibit variation in morphological features that can make correct species identification and management challenging. This may also apply to Xenopsylla brasiliensis (Baker, 1904), an important plague vector.

Evidence for interspecific interactions in the ectoparasite infracommunity of a wild mammal.

Background: Co-infection with multiple parasite species is commonly observed in nature and interspecific interactions are likely to occur in parasite infracommunities. Such interactions may affect the distribution of parasites among hosts but also the response of infracommunities to perturbations. However, the response of infracommunities to perturbations has not been well studied experimentally for ectoparasite communities of small mammal hosts.