XIV , 2 Banks: Bloodsucking Insects of the Philippines 179 
comers when replete with the blood of their victims. Their 
bite is as painful as that of the nicnic, but the effects last 
longer and the redness of a bitten spot will remain for two or 
three days, while the slightest irritation will cause it to begin 
itching again. 
FLEAS 
Fleas (Siphonaptera) have been considered by some authors 
as a suborder of the Diptera.^® Their metamorphoses would 
tend to indicate this and their wingless condition has its coun- 
terpart in certain Diptera, for example, the Phoridae. 
Fleas, living upon animals whose hair is more or less semi- 
erect, are very strongly compressed, so that they can easily travel 
through the mass of hairs and still maintain an attitude in which 
their suctorial mouth parts are at right angles to the skin that 
they puncture. Their bodies and legs are extremely smooth and 
are armed with strong spines, or setse, pointing caudad and 
distad, so that the slightest effort causes a forward movement 
and gives an excellent chance for escape even when caught 
between the teeth or the fingers of their permanent or temporary 
hosts. Their well-developed, saltatory hind legs make it easy 
for them to spring from the ground to their hosts or from host 
to host. Their hard chitinous integument protects them from 
being crushed, while their specially developed claws, or ungues, 
enable them to hold on to the hairs or the skin of the host. 
The adult flea lives habitually upon warm-blooded animals. 
The female drops her eggs to the floor, where they are brushed 
into crevices and where the grublike larvae feed upon dust, dried 
blood particles, faecal matter, and other filth, and among which 
they spin their cocoons for transformation to pupa and adult. 
The newly emerged adults then hop upon the mammalian host 
to begin their period of parasitism. 
The Philippines proves no exception to the rule that wherever 
man is found, with his congested habitations and his variety 
of domestic animals, there will be found an abundant supply 
of these annoying and dangerous pests. The superabundance 
of dogs and cats in all parts of the Archipelago accounts for 
the great numbers of dog and cat fleas {Ctenocephalus felis 
Bouche), while the many warehouses, old dwellings, and ill- 
designed newer ones in Manila and other large cities furnish 
harbors for hundreds of thousands of rats upon which the 
“ Folsom, J. W., Entomology with Special Reference to its Biological 
and Economic Aspects, 2d rev. ed. P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., Philadelphia 
(1913), 19. 
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