62 Fleas of Eastern United States 



Eastern localities. District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, 

 Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Virginia. 



Type material. Female from Iowa City, Iowa, on "Sciurop- 

 terus volans"; two females (types of the synonym, Pulex 

 gillettei) from Portland, Michigan, on "Sciurus canadensis," 

 and two males and two females (types of the synonym, Pulex 

 howardii) from Tallula Falls, Georgia, on "squirrel," in the 

 United States National Museum. 



This species is among our most abundant eastern fleas. Its 

 favorite hosts seem to be the various squirrels. 



Orchopeas caedens (Jordan) 



(Plate XVI, figs. 80, 81, 82) 



1925 Ceratophyllus caedens Jordan, Nov. Zool., 32:104, fig. 16. 



1929 Ceratophyllus caedens durus Jordan, Nov. Zool., 35: 29, fig. 3. 



1930 Ceratophyllus caedens dunis Jordan, Trans. IV Intern. Cong. Ento- 

 mology (1928), 2:495, fig. 3. 



1932 Ceratophyllus caedens durus Jordan, Nov. Zool., 38: 253. 



1933 Ceratophyllus caedens caedens Stewart, Jour. New York Ent. Soc, 

 41:257. 



1933 Orchopeas caedens Jordan, Nov. Zool., 39:71. 



1937 Orchopeas caedens durus Jordan, Nov. Zool., 40:284. 



Male. Chaetotaxy of the head essentially as in O. wickhami. 

 Preantennal region of the head armed with only one distinct 

 row of three stout bristles; two or three much weaker ones 

 located above this row. A number of small setae along the 

 anterior and posterior margins of the antennal groove. Poste- 

 rior margin of the head with a row of four or five bristles, 

 anterior to which are three or four bristles near the antennal 

 groove (Plate XVI, fig. 80) . Labial palpus extending beyond 

 the apex of the fore coxa. Modified segments: Process of the 

 clasper broad and truncate. Movable finger similar in shape to 

 that of O. sexdentatus, armed on the posterior margin usually 

 with four stout spiniforms. Posterior arm of sternite IX ex- 

 panded distad into a sharply pointed lobe which bears a stout 

 spiniform below which is a long bristle. For further details 

 concerning the structure of the male genitalia, see Plate XVI, 

 fig. 82. 



Female. Chaetotaxy of the head essentially as in the male 

 except that the bristles above the ocular row may be reduced 

 in size and number. Receptaculum seminis essentially as in 

 other species of the genus. Sternite VII variable in shape, 



