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Notes on the fleas Xenopsylla vexabilis Jordan, 1925 (Pulicidae: Siphonaptera) in Vietnam as related to the problem of anthropogenic plague foci

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Abstract

In the first half of the XX century, the flea Xenopsylla vexabilis, the main vector of the plague agent in the “natural plague foci” of the Hawaii, was shown to be a specific parasite of the small white-toothed rat Berylmys berdmorei, inhabiting the tropical forests and grasslands of Indochina, including Vietnam. X. vexabilis was not recorded in Vietnamese settlements. This flea was found in the fields bordering natural landscapes and agricultural areas as a parasite of the greater bandicoot rat Bandicota indica, Savile’s bandicoot rat B. savilei, and the rat Rattus koratensis. It was assumed that bandicoot rats may have played an important role in the introduction of the flea to the Pacific islands where X. vexabilis was then established on synanthropic rats. The new data do not support the concept of coevolution of the recent epizootic association Rattus exulans-Xenopsylla vexabilis-Yersinia pestis.

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  1. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119071, Russia

    V. V. Suntsov & N. I. Suntsova

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  1. V. V. Suntsov
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  2. N. I. Suntsova
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Correspondence to V. V. Suntsov.

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Original Russian Text © V.V. Suntsov, N.I. Suntsova, 2013, published in Parazilotogiya, 2013, Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 422–436.

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Suntsov, V.V., Suntsova, N.I. Notes on the fleas Xenopsylla vexabilis Jordan, 1925 (Pulicidae: Siphonaptera) in Vietnam as related to the problem of anthropogenic plague foci. Entmol. Rev. 94, 756–765 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S001387381405008X

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