fleas
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 ...
belonging to the family
Hectopsyllidae
Hectopsyllidae is a small family of fleas, containing only the chigoe flea ''Tunga penetrans'' and the genus '' Hectopsylla''. They were formerly known as Tungidae, and by authorities that demote the Pulicoidea to family rank they are treated as ...
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The genus has almost
cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The ext ...
Tunga penetrans
''Tunga penetrans'' is a species of flea also known as the jigger, jigger flea, chigoe, chigo, chigoe flea, chigo flea, nigua, sand flea, or burrowing flea. It is a parasitic insect found in most tropical and sub-tropical climates. In its parasi ...