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Abstract

There are some 3000 species of fleas worldwide, making up the insectan order Siphonaptera. All are blood-sucking temporary ectoparasites of warm-blooded animals, mainly mammals and some birds. Although they are comparatively host-specific, a few species will feed readily on humans if their preferred host is unavailable Blood is required by both sexes for nutrition and the female requires blood of the specific host in order to lay viable eggs.

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Burgess, N.R.H., Cowan, G.O. (1993). Fleas. In: A Colour Atlas of Medical Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1548-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1548-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4676-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1548-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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