134 DOG AND CAT-FLEA 
These dark chestnut-brown fleas (fig. 111) are stouter 
and thicker in the thoracic region than those infesting man, 
which are darker and have a more slender waist. A row of 
sharp spines is found on the lower margin of the head, and 
another one on the posterior edge of the first segment of the 
thorax; both sets of spines are absent in the human flea. 
The female flea deposits her eggs among the fur; as these 
very small, white, elongated eggs (fig. 112,a) are butslightly 
attached to the hair they drop 
off quite readily and are thus 
scattered; they can be easily 
found wherever infested cats or 
dogs sleep. The young larve 
hatch in a few days, according 
eee iargae Biectin mainte Orthe Season, they: hawemram ane 
Original. yellow head and _ are furnished, 
like the larve of other fleas, with two spines on the last 
segment of the body, and with very long hair along the sides. 
The footless larvee (fig. 112,6) move by means of these spines 
and hairs. The pupa, which resembles more the adult stage 
than the larval one, has free legs. As soon as the adult flea 
is born, it attacks the first living animal to obtain blood. 
As the larve can exist upon all sorts of dead organic matter 
they even hatch from eggs dropped by dogs or cats in gar- 
dens, and these can reach maturity in such places. Such fleas 
are called ‘‘sand-fleas”’, but they are simply the offspring of 
cat or dog-fleas. 

Fleas pass the winter in all stages; in fact they are al- 
ways active and the females seem to drop eggs quite fre- 
quently, even during the coldest season, hence many must 
perish. During the late cold spell (Nov. 1896) the female 
fleas taken from a rabbit dropped their eggs quite readily, 
butasit is not likely thatthey would do so if these would or 
could not hatch, the eggs, perhaps, do not develop until 
spring. As fleas increase so rapidly in numbers there may 
be a number of broods during a year. 
The dog-flea was at one time considered to be different 
from the cat-flea, but it is so very similar, and the differences 
in the mouth-parts and proportions of the posterior tarsi 
