ENTOMOLOGY 999 
SIPHONAPTERA 
HECTOPSYLLIDAE 
Dermatophilus penetrans (Linnaeus) 
Pulex penetrans Linnaeus, 1758, ‘Syst. Nat.,’’? 10th Ed., I, p. 614 (America). 
Dermatophilus penetrans Guérin-Méneville, 1838, ‘Iconogr. Régne Animal,’ Text, p. 14 (Pulez 
penetrans, Atlas, 1836, Pl. I, fig. 9). J. Bequaert, 1926, ‘Medical Rept. Hamilton Rice 7th 
Exp. Amazon,’ p. 246. 
LrBertA. — Monrovia, common in man. 
BELGIAN Conco. — Lulenga, at an altitude of 1,850 m., in man. Nya 
Ngezi, common in the resthouse. 
TANGANYIKA TERRITORY. — Bagilo, Uluguru Mountains, in man (Arthur 
Loveridge). 
R. Blanchard (1895, ‘Traité de Zoologie Médicale, II, p. 490-491) men- 
tions that a foot of domestic pig, brought from Liberia by J. Jullien, was honey- 
combed with the tumors of the jigger flea. The parasite was introduced into 
Liberia about the year 1880. In the Belgian Congo, this pest is almost uni- 
versal and extremely troublesome in certain localities, but it does not appear 
to occur much above 1,800 m. Roubaud and Van Saceghem (1916, Bull. Soe. 
Path. Exot., Paris, IX, p. 766) have commented upon the abundance of D. 
penetrans in pigs at Zambi, Lower Congo. 
D. penetrans was originally an American insect which has been introduced 
by man into the tropics of the Old World. Most authors follow R. Blanchard 
in stating that it was carried first to the west coast of Africa (at Ambriz in 
Angola) in 1872.1 At present it occurs over the whole of tropical Africa, ex- 
tending southward into Zululand and the coastal belt of Natal. It is also 
found in the Senegal, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Eritrea; but I have been 
unable to find whether it extends much farther northward. It was first re- 
ported from Madagascar about 1899. 
I have given (1926) my reasons for retaining the generic name Derma- 
tophilus instead of replacing it by T’unga, as has been advocated by N. G. Roths- 
child (1921, Ectoparasites, I, 3, p. 129) and more recently by K. Jordan (1929, 
Proc. Ent. Soc. London, IV, 1, pp. 34-35). Rhynchoprion Oken (1815) cannot 
be used for the jigger flea, not only because Oken did not intend to use it for 
Pulex irritans, but also because it is preoccupied by Rhynchoprion Hermann, 
1804, ‘Mémoire Aptérologique,’ p. 14 (see A. C. Oudemans, 1906, Entom. 
Berichten Nederl. Ent. Ver., II, p. 123). 
ECHIDNOPHAGIDAE 
Echidnophaga gallinacea (Westwood), the stick-tight or stick-fast flea of 
poultry, occurs in the Lower Belgian Congo, where it was found in the region 
1 Blanchard, R. 1889. ‘Quelques mots sur la chique.’ Bull. Soc. Zool. France, XIV, pp. 95-99. 
1910. La chique n’existait pas en Afrique occidentale au XVIII° siécle.’ Arch. de Parasitologie, 
XIV, pp. 164-165. 
Hesse, P. 1899. ‘Die Ausbreitung des Sandflohs in Afrika.’ Geogr. Zeitschr., V, pp. 522-530. 
