252 

 Notes on the Hen Flea ("Echidnophaga gallinacea" Westw.)* 



BY J. F. IT.LIXGWORTII. 

 [Presented at May Meeting.] 



Kecciitlv an al)iiiKlaiit infestation of my chickens led me 

 to examine rather carefnlly the habits of this troublesome in- 

 sect. As I reported at last meeting, 1 iirst discovered the 

 larvae were being destroyed by our predaceous ant (Pheidole 

 megacepliala). 1 found the dry dust which I kept on the 

 roosting board swarming with the immature stages of this 

 flea. I at once removed the dust and washed down the boards 

 with the hose. Next morning the whole surface of the roosts 

 was thickly covered with the eggs which had dropped, during 

 the night, from the fleas on the hens. I washed down the 

 roosting l)oard daily, and found that the number of eggs de- 

 posited at night grew less and less. Within two weeks the 

 adult fleas on the hens had practically disappeared. 



Quantities of the newly laid eggs were collected in vials 

 and the life history followed. The incubation period was 

 very easy to determine, since fleas i)laced in the vials deposited 



eggs at once. 



Some difiiculty Avas at flrst experienced in feeding the 

 larvae. Examining the attached fleas, I found that the blood 

 from the hen was rapidly passing through them and being 

 dropped in the form of small pellets of coagulated blood. I 

 had already noticed that the food in the stomach of the larvae, 

 collected on the roosting board, showed through the skin, a 

 dark-red color; and had noted that other species of fleas were 

 thought to feed upon this excrement of the parents. In the 

 vials containing these dry pellets of blood mixed with the dust 

 I was al)le to easily trace the entire development. 



The larvae when ready to pupate became quite white, with 

 the alimentary canal empty and the body stored with fat. 

 The cocoon, made of the flnest silk, is very thin, l)ut serves 



*This and the two following short papers were inadvertently 

 overlooked when the copy went to the printers. The omission was 

 not discovered until after the forms were made up, and so they are 

 placed here, as they could not be inserted in proper chronological 

 position. — Ed. 



Proc. Haw. Ent. Soc, III, No. 3, September, 1916. 



