The Pulicidae are a flea family in 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 ...

. 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, laterally flattened, and great jumpers. They must be able to jump quickly and at great relative heights in order to latch onto their host for feeding and for rapid escape from their host. They make incredible jumps using the protein,

resilin Resilin is an elastomeric protein found in many insects and other arthropods. It provides soft rubber-elasticity to mechanically active organs and tissue; for example, it enables insects of many species to jump or pivot their wings efficiently ...

. It charges the energy in their body, allowing more forceful and frequent jumps than would be possible relying on only their muscles. This also means that they can to jump frequently without exhausting their muscles. They mainly feed on mammal blood, and many Siphonoptera families, including Pulicidae, transmit disease.

Ecology

Pulicidae feed on mammalian blood. ''Ctenocephalides felis felis'' is also known as the cat flea, and is an extremely important parasite of domestic cats and dogs. They prefer to feed on areas round the head and neck of a cat, rather than the ventral part of the body. The transmission of dog tapeworm is a result of this flea, as well. As for their effect on humans, they are also responsible for flea bite allergy dermatitis. Additionally, Pulicidae transmit ''

Yersinia pestis ''Yersinia pestis'' (''Y. pestis''; formerly '' Pasteurella pestis'') is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both ''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis'' and ''Yersinia enterocolitica''. It is a facult ...

'', the bacteria responsible for plague.Eisen, R. J. et al. (2007). Early-phase transmission of Yersinia pestis by unblocked Xenopsylla cheopis (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) is as efficient as transmission by blocked fleas. Journal of Medical Entomology. 44(4): 678-82.

References

External links

Insect families {{flea-stub