FLEA (O. Eng. fleah, or flea, cognate with flee, to run away from, to take flight)

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 491 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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FLEA (O. Eng. fleah, or flea, cognate with flee, to run away from, to take flight) , a name typically applied to Pulex irritans, a well-known blood-sucking

insect

INSECT

-parasite of man and other mammals, remarkable for its powers of leaping, and nearly cosmopolitan. In

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

language the name is used for any species of Siphonaptera (otherwise known as Aphaniptera), which, though formerly regarded as a suborder of

Diptera

DIPTERA (Sir,
double
- DOUBLE
- DOUBLE (from the Mid. Eng. duble, the form which gives the present pronunciation, through the Old Er. duble, from Lat. duplus, twice as much)
, arepa, wings)

(q.v.), are now considered to be a

separate

SEPARATE

order of insects. All Siphonaptera, of which more than loo species are known, are parasitic on mammals or birds. The

majority

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

of the species belong to the family Pulicidae, of which P. irritans may be taken as the type; but the order also includes the Sarcopsyllidae, the females of which fix themselves firmly to their host, and the Ceratopsyllidae, or bat-fleas.
Fleas are wingless insects, with a laterally compressed

body

BODY

, small and indistinctly separated head, and short thick antennae situated in cavities somewhat behind and above the simple eyes, which are always minute and sometimes absent. The structure of the mouth-parts is different from that seen in any other insects. The actual piercing organs are the mandibles, while the upper lip or labrum forms a sucking tube. The maxillae are not piercing organs, and their

function

FUNCTION

is to protect the mandibles and labrum and

separate

SEPARATE

the hairs or feathers of the host. Maxillary and labial palpi are also present, and the latter, together with the labrum or lower lip, form the rostrum.
Fleas are oviparous, and undergo a very complete metamorphosis. The footless larvae are elongate, worm-like and very active; they feed upon almost any kind of waste animal matter, and when full-grown form a silken cocoon. The human flea is considerably exceeded in size by certain other species foundtalpae, a parasite of the mole, shrew and other small mammals, attains a length of 5i millimetres; another large species infests the Indian porcupine. Of the Sarcopsyllidae the best known species is the " jigger " or " chigoe " (Dermatophilus penetrans), indigenous in tropical

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

America and introduced into West Africa during the second half of last century. Since then this pest has spread across the African continent and even reached Madagascar. The impregnated female jigger burrows into the feet of men and dogs, and becomes distended with eggs until its abdomen attains the size and

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

of a small pea. If in extracting the

insect

INSECT

the abdomen be ruptured, serious trouble may ensue from the resulting inflammation. At least four species of fleas (including Pulex irritans) which infest the common rat are known to bite man, and are believed to be the active agents in the transmission of plague from Tats to human beings. (E. E. A.)

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