28 
The Non-Combed Eyed Siphonaptera 
bristles is not the same in all the different species, the rows on the 
central segments containing, for instance, in regis about 20 bristles, 
while there are only about 10 in pallidus. The number is most 
reduced in L. creusae. In the male of this species the tergites bear 
6 bristles on the two sides together, one placed below the stigma and 
the others on the back, the intermediate bristles being absent or 
reduced to minute hairs. The seventh tergite bears in addition to the 
postmedian series a single subapical bristle which is situated a short 
distance proximally of the apical edge of the segment (PI. VI, figs. 1—4), 
as is the case also in Pulex, Ctenocephalus, Moeopsylla and Pariodontis, 
the edge of the segment not being excised as in the other Pulicidae 
inclusive of the American forms allied to Pulex and Loemopsylla 
(PI. VI, fig. 7). In the ,/ of L. scopulifer this bristle is placed on a 
process which projects beyond the edge of the segment (PI. V, fig. 1). 
The sternites of the third to sixth abdominal segments bear in 
Loemopsylla each a ventral row of bristles, there being sometimes a few 
additional bristles in front of this row on the second and third sternites 
or only on the third, as for example in Loemopsylla erilli and gerbilli. 
The first sternite, which is that of the second segment 1 , the first 
segment having no sternal sclerite in the Siphonaptera, as is also the 
case in many other insects, overlaps the second tergite, while in the 
other segments the upper portion is covered by the tergite. This first 
sternite has in most species of Loemopsylla only two ventral bristles, 
but in the $ $ of a few species ( L. longispinus, erilli and cheopis ) there 
are in addition some bristles on the side. The bristles on the sternite 
of the seventh segment are more numerous than on the preceding 
segments, there being on this segment a single row, and in some species 
a few additional hairs placed in front of the row. 
1 In Journal of Hygiene, vii. p. 446, there is an article on the morphology of L. cheopis, 
the name of the author of the essay not being stated. In this article the ninth sternite is 
correctly described, but the author, who apparently is not well acquainted with insect 
morphology, calls this plate the seventh sternite, treating the true seventh sternite as 
belonging to the sixth segment, the fifth sternite belonging to the fourth segment, and so 
on. He proceeds to explain this by maintaining that the basal sternite is that of the first 
segment and not of the second, it being quite erroneous to hold the opinion that the 
sternite of the first segment is absent. Some elementary knowledge of the composition of 
the abdomen of other insects and of the development of the segments in the chrysalis, we 
think, would doubtless have prevented the author from making such an astonishing state¬ 
ment. The opening of the vagina above the ninth sternite is quite the normal situation, 
the anus being situated between the tenth sternite and the tenth tergite. In the case of 
the <? the author makes a similar mistake. The “clasper” is called the ninth sternite, 
while it is really the lateral portion of the ninth tergite; and the tenth (or last) sternite 
has been overlooked altogether. 
