Abstract
Data obtained during feeding of infested females and males of Citellophilus tesquorum altaicus Ioff, 1936 (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae), the main vector of plague in Tuva natural plague focus, on the natural hosts and on laboratory animals were analyzed. Sexual differences in fleas were found to depend on the host. Females fed more actively on longtailed ground squirrels Spermophilus undulatus than on white mice. The feeding activity of males on the two hosts did not differ. A higher mortality of infested females and males was observed during feeding on mice. The frequency of block formation and pathogen transmission in males was higher during bloodsucking on the ground squirrel; in females, during feeding on mice. Thus, sex-related differences in the plague pathogen transmission revealed in laboratory white mice may be not the same in nature. This should be taken into account when extrapolating the experimental data on the natural relations between the plague pathogen and ectoparasites.
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Original Russian Text © L.P. Bazanova, D.B. Verzhutsky, E.G. Tokmakova, 2012, published in Parazitologiya, 2012, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 91–97.
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Bazanova, L.P., Verzhutsky, D.B. & Tokmakova, E.G. The influence of the host on the frequency of block formation in males and females of Citellophilus tesquorum altaicus Ioff, 1936 (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae) and transmission of the plague pathogen by these fleas. Entmol. Rev. 92, 1002–1005 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873812090060
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873812090060