; 
SIPHONAPTERA. 151 
and their eggs may be found adhering very lousely to the hairs of these 
animals. They drop off, however, at tke slightest touch, and must 
therefore be distributed in a great variety of places besides the sleep- 
ing places of their hosts, which would naturally receive the greater 
number. Dr. Howard suggests that for experimenters who may wish 
to follow out for themselves the life history of the species an easy way 
to collect the eggs is to lay a strip of cloth or carpet for the animal to 
lie and sleep upon, and afterwards to brush the cloth into a receptacle, 
in which the eggs will be found in numbers if the animal is infested. 
Verrill gives the following condensed account of the life history of 
this species: 
The female cat flea lays her eggs among the fur of the cat, to which they are but 
slightly attached. These eggs are very small, white, and long oval. As the cat 
walks or runs about, the eggs are constantly 
being scattered around, often in great numbers. 
On one occasion I was able to collect fully a tea- 
spoonful of these eggs from the dress of a lady in 
whose lap a half-grown kitten had been held for 
a short time. The places where cats sleep be- 
come well filled with eggs. These hatch inabout 
two weeks into little, white, footless, maggot- 
like larve, which have small tufts of hairs along 
the sides. They are at first about one-sixteenth 
of an inch long. The head is pale yellow and 
the posterior end of the body bears two spines. 
These larve feed upon decaying particles of ani- 
mal and vegetable matter always to be found in 
the dirt where they live. They move about by 
means of their hairs and spines. They grow 
rapidly in warm weather, and in about twelve 
days, when they mature, spin a slight silken 
cocoon and change to a pupa, which is inactive. This looks more like the mature 
flea and has the legs free. In a short time, varying from ten to sixteen days or more, 
according to the temperature, the pupa matures, and the full-formed flea comes forth 
from the cocoon, ready and willing to take care of itself. * * * They pass the 
winter both in ‘lie mature and larval states, and perhaps also as eggs and pupx. 
There are several broods each season. 
Fic. 83.—Pulex serraticeps: front part 
of body, showing combs on head and 
pronotum—enlarged (original). 
REMEDIES. 
A very concise statement of the remedies to be applied for fleas is 
given in cireular No. 13, by Dr. L. O. Howard: 
The larve of the dog and cat flea will not develop successfully in situations where 
they are likely to be disturbed. The use of carpets and straw mattings, in our 
opinion, favors their development, since the young larye can penetrate the inter- 
stices of either sort of floor covering and find an abiding*place in some crack where 
they are not likely to be disturbed. It is comparatively easy to destroy the insect 
in its early stages (when it is noticed), as is shown by the difficulty of rearing it, 
but the adult fleas are so active and so hardy that they successfully resist any but 
the most strenuous measures. Even the persistent use of California buhach and 
other pyrethrum powders was ineffectual in one case of extreme infestation, as was 
also, and more remarkably, a free sprinkling of floor mattings with benzine. In 
this instance it was finally necessary to take up the floor coverings and wash the 
