Nosopsyllus londiniensis 1 01.jpg

Taxonomy: Order Siphonaptera (fleas)
Animal: Nosopsyllus londiniensis 1 01.jpg
Sites: Skin
Comment:
Nosopsyllus londiniensis, rodent flea. This male flea has a pronotal comb which has fewer than 24 spines, no genal comb, has eyes, the shape of the reproductive structures assists in identifying this species. Identification of flea species is determined by the shape of the head, presence or absence of genal and pronotal combs, eyes, internal rod on the mesothorax, bristles on hindcoxa etc. (see Pugh 1985 PhD thesis; Smart. 1943) see bibliography for details. Although cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis felis are the usual intermediate host for the double pored tapeworm, Dipylidium caninum, other flea species have been reported to also act as intermediate hosts for this tapeworm but experimentally only Xenopsylla cheopis was found to be a suitable alternative intermendiate host; Ctenocephalides canis (dog flea) and Nosopsyllus londinensis were not - possibly due to their physiology and/or the strong cellular immune reaction that was observed (Pugh RE PhD thesis)

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