THE FLEAS OF NORTH AMERICA 121 



Trembley and Bishopp (76) have summarized their United States 

 records for Echidnophaga gallin-acea, listing this flea from 22 States 

 and citing numerous hosts. 



Echidnophaga gallinacea, known as the sticktight flea, occurs on 

 many wild hosts and undoubtedly is yearly carried in large numbers 

 outside of its normal range. Its dispersal because of this fact has been 

 discussed by Stewart (73). 



This flea, in the adult stage, attaches firmly to its host and en- 

 gorges with blood. The females, as a rule, do not change their 

 position of attachment, but according to Illingworth (32) the 

 "males move about during the night, being attached in different 

 positions each morning * * *." 



Many kinds of warm-blooded vertebrates are attacked by Echid- 

 nophaga gdttinacea. It has been reported from a considerable num- 

 ber of our wild birds and is a serious pest of poultry in the South, 

 where chickens frequently have dark flea-covered patches about the 

 eyes, comb, or wattles. Dogs and cats, as well as man himself, are 

 attacked. Rats, as hosts to this pest, play an important part in its 

 distribution, although the fleas are not very abundant on these 

 rodents. According to C. Fox and Sullivan (24, p. 1923), out of 

 3.928 fleas taken in a rat-flea survey of Xew Orleans in 1922-23, only 

 12 specimens were E. gallinacea. 



The life history of this species has been worked out by Parman 

 (62) . He found that the incubation period lasted from 4 to 14 days, 

 the larval period from 14 to 31 days, and the pupal period from 9 

 to 19 days. The females became engorged and oviposition began 

 in from 6 to 10 days after attachment. Adults were killed by freez- 

 ing temperature and could not endure an incubator temperature of 

 100° F. 



The Genus Tunga Jarocki 



(Fig. 13, B, D) 



Tunga Jarocki, 1838, Zoology or General Description of Animals, p. 50. 

 Monotypic. Type, Pulex penetrans Linnaeus. 

 Front produced into an angular tubercle along anterior margin. Maxilla 

 greatly reduced, narrowly rounded at apex, and entirely concealed within 

 head. Labrum, as well as mandibles, large. Labial palpus very weak, poorly 

 pigmented, with indistinct segmentation, and practically devoid of setae. Eye 

 large, black. Hind coxa without a patch of spinelets on inner surface. Femur 

 III without toothlike projection at its base. Plantar bristles on segment V 

 of each tarsus slender, not darker than other setae on tarsi. Abdominal seg- 

 ments II and III of female without spiracles. Sternum VIII of male enlarged, 

 very broad, without long setae. Clasper slender; process similar in size and 

 shape to movable finger and forming with the latter a pair of forceps. Penis 

 complicated, consisting of a basal or anterior part hinged to a distal or pos- 

 terior part; anterior part composed of a dorsal, pedicellate, basal plate, arising 

 from segments I and II of abdomen, and a ventral, elbowed part attached to 

 distal part by a strong ligament ; posterior part of penis bearing distally a 

 pair of slender, forked, almost straight parameres and a somewhat longer, 

 unpaired, slender process. Female with a spherical receptaculum seminis, 

 situated in posteroventral region of abdomen. 



Tunga has the following synonyms : Dermatophilus Guerin, 1839 ; 

 Dermatophylus Lucas, 1839; Rhyiiehojrrion Oken. 1815 (not Her- 

 mann, 1804) ; Sarcophaga Westwood, 1836 (not' Meigen, 1826) ; 

 Sarcopsylla Westwood, 1840 (proposed to replace Sarcophaga West- 

 wood) ; and Sarcopsyllus Kolenati, 1857. 



