380 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Oct., 'oS 



2. Femora largely black ; metanotum black ; larger . . emarginata Say. 

 Femora mostly yellow ; metanotum in part yellow ; smaller. 



pictifrons Sm. 

 Stictia pictifrons Sm. 



Female, Livermore, Col., July 8, 1900. 



Stictia emarginata Say. 

 Female, L/ivermore, Col., July 15, 1900. 



Stictia speciosa Cress. 

 Female, Sterling, Col. ; female, Lamar, Col. 



Stictia pulchella Cress. 



There are no specimens of this species in the collection, but 

 it has been reported from Colorado by Fox, Cresson and Ash- 

 mead. 



Synopsis and Bibliography of California Siphonaptera. 



BY M. B. MITZMAIN, B. S., 

 Entomological Laboratory, University of California. 



The science of preventive medicine is growing apace with the 

 commercial aggrandizement of the tropics and sub-tropics. It 

 is leaving a profound impression on the very vitals of their 

 economics. At present the Pacific metropolis, San Francisco, 

 is in the throes of a sanitary upheaval conducted under the 

 efficient guardianship of the greatest of exponents of preventive 

 medicine, the U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. 

 The campaign is a reactionary movement against the inroads 

 of the dreaded oriental plague. Science has pointed its finger at 

 the flea as the specific carrier of the pest germ. 



The recent epidemic has given the flea a recognition which 

 makes it pre-eminently notorious among insect foes. The fol- 

 lowing synopsis covers the species recorded in California. There 

 are two species discovered on rats in San Francisco by Past 

 Assistant Surgeon Fox, of the U. S. Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service, which have not as yet been described. Dr. 

 Fox is also responsible for the finding of C. iguotiis on the 

 California gopher. The rat fleas herein recorded have been 

 collected by the writer during an inspection of over two thou- 

 sand rats from the San Francisco Bay region. 



