''Hystrichopsylla schefferi'', also known as the mountain beaver flea and giant mountain beaver flea, is a parasitic
nearctic
The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface.
The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...
insect belonging to the order
Siphonaptera
Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, ar ...
, the fleas. With an adult body length of as much as , it is the largest living flea in the world, and is native to the American Northwest.
Though most members of the genus ''Hystrichopsylla'' are not strongly associated with any particular
host
A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it.
Host may also refer to:
Places
* Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County
People
*Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman
* Michel Host ...
animal and will parasitize insectivores and rodents generally,
''H. schefferi'' is
monoxenously associated with the
mountain beaver
The mountain beaver (''Aplodontia rufa'')Other names include mountain boomer, ground bear, giant mole, gehalis, lesser sasquatch, sewellel, suwellel, showhurll, showtl, and showte, as well as a number of Chinookan and other Native American terms ...
with which its range is coterminous.
The fleas of the family Hystrichopsyllidae, along with the family
Pulicidae
The Pulicidae are a flea family in the order Siphonaptera. Currently, this family has 181 species in 27 genera. Of these, 16 are known from North America.
Like all 2,500 Siphonaptera, the Pulicidae are ectoparasites. These fleas are wingless, l ...
, are the oldest of fleas in evolutionary history.
''H. schefferi'' can be distinguished from the very similar and closely related species ''
Hystrichopsylla gigas dippiei'' by the number of spines in the pronotal comb, as ''H. g. dippiei'' has 36 and ''H. schefferi'' has 46.
See also
*
List of largest insects
Insects, which are a type of arthropod, are the most numerous group of multicellular organisms on the planet, with over a million species identified so far. The title of heaviest insect in the world has many contenders, the most frequently crowne ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10531203
Endemic fauna of the United States
Hystrichopsyllidae
Parasites of rodents
Endemic fauna of the Pacific Northwest