148 INSECTS AFFECTING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
as 1832 to 1835 he brings them all together, and, discarding the various 
names referring to particular hosts, as galline Bouché, columbe Ger- 
vais, hirundinis Sam., sturni Dale, and fringille Walk., proposes a new 
name, avium, to stand for the species. 
It belongs to the series with no comb of spines on the head, but 
with a comb on the pronotum. The mandibles are short, not reaching 
to the ends of the anterior coxe, and there are 24 to 26 spines in the’ 
pronotal comb. The hind femora have a row of minute bristles on the 
side, and the first two of the abdominal segments have minute teeth 
on the disk above. Length, 3 to34 mm. Dark brown in color. 
THE RAT AND MOUSE FLEA. 
(Pulex fasciatus Bose d’ Antic.) 
This species seems to have received pretty general recognition, and 
has been recorded from quite a number of different hosts. Whether i 
can be said to be primarily a parasite of the rat and mouse I do not 
pretend to say, but since it has been noted a number of times from these 
animals, and so far only from these in this country, I have assigned 
it here. 
Nothing has been recorded regarding its life history, but doubtless 
it is like its congeners. 
The adults are elongate. with the head evenly rounded in front, with- 
out any comb of spines on the lower border, while the hind border 
of the pronotum bears a comb of strong spines, 18 in number. The 
mouth parts are of normal length, not extending beyond the anterior 
cox, a character which will separate it from its nearest allies, the 
sciurorum and avium. Taschenberg has collected a list of the known 
hosts, and enumerates Myoxus, Oricetus frumentarius, Mus musculus 
(mouse), Mus decumanus (rat), and Canis lagopus; and adds that he has 
also two examples from the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. I have col- 
lected it from Mus decumanus at Ames, Iowa, which appears to be the 
only record from a definite host in America, but it is doubtless of com- 
mon occurrence. 
SQUIRREL FLEAS. 
Several species of fleas have been described from the squirrels, and 
while they do not occur indiscriminately on all species it will serve 
our purpose here to consider them together, referring for full descrip- 
tion to the technical papers of Taschenberg and Baker. 
Pulex sciurorum Bouché, the flea which infests squirrels in Europe, 
has not been found to occur on our American species of squirrels. 
Pulex howardi Baker, recorded from the red squirrel, Ithaca, N. Y., 
‘‘ squirrel,” Tallula Falls, Ga., gray or fox squirrel and nest of field 
mouse, Lincoln, Nebr., is apparently the most generally distributed of 
the American species, 
_ 
PY 
* 
4 
ms 
q 
: 
us 
ji 
. 
; 
