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Blood‐feeding of the gerbil flea Nosopsyllus laeviceps kuzenkovi (Yagubyants), vector of plague in Inner Mongolia, China
Author(s) -
JUN LIU,
SHANGJUN LI,
AMIN OMAR M.,
YUMEI ZHANG
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1993.tb00651.x
Subject(s) - flea , biology , gerbil , xenopsylla , plague (disease) , enzootic , inner mongolia , zoology , host (biology) , subspecies , vector (molecular biology) , veterinary medicine , rodent , ecology , china , virology , virus , medicine , history , biochemistry , ischemia , archaeology , political science , law , gene , cardiology , recombinant dna
. The gerbil flea Nosopsyllus laeviceps (Wagner) (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae) is an important Palaearctic vector of enzootic plague among sylvan and campestral rodents. Laboratory blood‐feeding experiments with the subspecies N.l.kuzenkovi (Yagubynts) from Inner Mongolia, China, using three rodent species including the natural host Meriones unguiculatus (Milne‐Edwards), demonstrated a positive relationship between per cent feeding and time allowed for feeding, particularly for female fleas. Also the bloodmeal size was proportional to sucking time and was significantly greater in females, which are larger, than in males. However, on all four strains of host tested, there was no significant correlation between the feeding success rate of the fleas and the amount of blood they imbibed. Fleas fed better on active compared to confined M.unguiculatus . These findings agree with studies of other flea species.