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Fleas (Siphonaptera) of Mammals and Birds in the Great Caucasus B

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Fleas (Siphonaptera) of Mammals and Birds in the Great Caucasus B ISSN 0013-8738, Entomological Review, 2015, Vol. 95, No. 6, pp. 728–738. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2015. Original Russian Text © B.K. Kotti, 2015, published in Parazitologiya, 2015, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 289–303. Fleas (Siphonaptera) of Mammals and Birds in the Great Caucasus B. K. Kotti North-Caucasus Federal University, Stavropol, 355009 Russia e-mail: [email protected] Received November 17, 2014 Abstract—There are 116 species of fleas in the territory of the Great Caucasus, of which 21 species occur on birds and the rest, on mammals. Among the 41 flea genera present in the Caucasian fauna, only Caenopsylla, Phaenop- sylla, and Araeopsylla are absent in the Great Caucasus. There are 11 endemic species. Fleas of 66 species are dis- tributed over the entire mountain system. Parasites of some birds, carnivores, insectivores, and rodents occur from lowlands to highlands. Some species inhabit the forest altitudinal belt while others prefer the foothill and middle mountain areas, being absent in the highlands even though their hosts may occur at all the altitudes. The distribu- tion of other species is limited to lowlands in accordance with that of their main hosts. DOI: 10.1134/S0013873815060068 Earlier we have analyzed the specific traits Special living conditions for mammals, birds, and their of species diversity and host associations of fleas ectoparasites are provided by rocky areas and screes. of the Caucasus, and also established the main pathways of migration of some groups of fleas into The diverse living conditions of mammals and birds this territory (Medvedev and Kotti, 2011, 2012). determine a considerable species diversity of their This communication summarizes the results of fleas. Correspondingly, the flea fauna of the Great many-year research of the flea fauna of the Great Cau- Caucasus is of great interest from the viewpoint of casus. zoogeographic analysis. In addition, studies of the fleas of this territory are of considerable medical im- The mountain system of the Great Caucasus extends portance due to the presence of the East Caucasian and sublatitudinally for almost 1100 km and is subdivided the Central Caucasian alpine natural plague foci as into three main parts. The West Caucasus embraces well as the isolated Kobystan part of the Transcauca- the territories west of Elbrus, the Central Caucasus sian plain-piedmont plague focus (Onishchenko and includes the ranges positioned between Elbrus and Kutyrev, 2004). Kazbek Mountains, and the East Caucasus, the territo- The fleas of the Great Caucasus have been studied ries east of Kazbek. for more than a hundred years. The first publication on Meadow-like steppes constitute the main type of this topic contained a description of a new ectoparasite vegetation in the piedmont areas up to 1000 m above of bats, the flea Ischnopsyllus dolosus (Dampf, 1912). sea level (a.s.l.). Broad-leaved and coniferous forests The fauna of the region was studied by many are typical of the middle mountains at altitudes from researchers, including A.I. Argyropulo, N.F. Darskaya, 1000 to 2000 m a.s.l., whereas subalpine and alpine A.I. Devkin, A.I. Goncharov, I.G. Ioff, E.V. Isaeva, meadows occur in the highlands at altitudes greater N.F. Labunets, M.N. Mirzoeva, V.N. Nefedov, than 2000 m a.s.l. The Great Caucasus provides favor- I.N. Razumova, B.A. Rostigaev, R.F. Savenko, able conditions for existence of a rich fauna of fleas. It Ya.F. Shatas, F. Smit, E.F. Sosnina, N.G. Syrvacheva, includes vast treeless territories inhabited by various A.N. Talybov, and others. An important result of the mammals and birds that make burrows and nest in many years of research was the publication of the Key them, or use the burrows of other homoiotherms. to the Fleas of the Caucasus (Tiflov et al., 1977). Some inhabitants of meadows and steppes build nests The discovery of natural plague foci in the Great on the soil surface. The forest biotopes provide habi- Caucasus in 1971 and 1977 (Onishchenko and tats for animals nesting in tree hollows or crowns. Kutyrev, 2004) encouraged further studies of 728 FLEAS (SIPHONAPTERA) OF MAMMALS AND BIRDS 729 its flea fauna. At this stage, research was carried By the degree of host specificity, fleas can be mon- out by L.I. Belyavtseva, A.I. Goncharov, N.P. Gubare- oxenous (ultraspecific) parasites, infesting hosts of va, E.V. Isaeva, K.P. Kadatskaya, Yu.E. Komarov, only one species, or oligoxenous parasites, occurring T.I. Kazakova, P.N. Korzhov, B.K. Kotti, N.F. Labu- on several congeneric host species. Among fleas there nets, A.N. Talybov, Sh.G. Tsikhistavi, Z.G. Shev- are also some pleioxenous parasites whose main hosts chenko, and others. The data on the flea faunas of belong to several genera of one family, and also some parts of the Great Caucasus were summarized in polyxenous parasites that infest hosts from different the monograph Species Diversity of Fleas (Siphonap- families, orders, and even classes (Balashov, 2000). tera) of the Caucasus (Kotti, 2014). The names of the bird species are given below ac- MATERIALS AND METHODS cording to Stepanyan (2003), those of the mammal species, according to Pavlinov and Lisovsky (2012). This work is based on the material collected by the The mammal and bird fauna of the Great Caucasus is author from 1978 to 2014 in different regions of the characterized based on a number of publications (Isa- Great Caucasus. Research was carried out at 20 collec- kov et al., 1966; Tembotov, 1972; Beme et al., 1987; tion sites positioned at altitudes from 300 to 2700 m Tembotov and Kazakov, 1982; Sokolov and Tem- a.s.l. Altogether, about 100 thousand specimens of botov, 1989). fleas collected off 23 thousand mammals and in 410 mammal and bird nests were identified to species. The distribution of six flea species, namely Xeno- From 1978 to 1981, together with researchers from psylla cheopis, Ctenocephalides felis, C. canis, Tar- the Dagestan anti-plague station, we studied the popu- sopsylla octodecimdentata, Nosopsyllus fasciatus, and lations of the common and water voles, the gray ham- Leptopsylla segnis, is determined by the activities of ster, and other small mammals in the subalpine and man. The ranges of the remaining 110 species are clas- alpine belts at 2300–2700 m a.s.l. The sampling sites sified below following the system of Kryzhanovskij were positioned north of the Samur Range near Kok- (2002), which was used in our earlier publications madag Mt., and also in Kulinsky and Agulsky Districts (Kotti, 2005). The flea species are united into groups of Dagestan. In addition, some collections of fleas and and complexes based on the size, outlines, continuity, their hosts were performed in the middle mountain and geographic position of their ranges. belt, in the Samur valley (Akhty and Rutul Districts) and in the foothills, on the north slope of the Gimri The Specificity of Associations between Fleas Range (Buinak District). and Their Hosts From 1976 to 2014, summer expeditions were or- The fleas found in the Great Caucasus and their ganized to the western and central parts of the Great main hosts are listed in Table 1. Although the region Caucasus. Fleas were collected off small mammals in question comprises only one-third of the whole and from their nests in the upper reaches of the rivers territory of the Caucasus, its flea fauna includes Malka, Kuban, Teberda, Malyi Zelenchuk, Bol- 116 species, or 70% of the total number of species shoi Zelenchuk, Bolshaya Laba, and Belaya. In addi- known from the Caucasus. tion, earlier flea collections of S.A. Ashibokova, There are more than 100 mammal species in the N.B. Birulya, G.Ya. Bobyr, A.A. Guseva, N.F. Dar- Great Caucasus (Shidlovsky, 1976; Tembotov skaya, A.I. Devkin, A.N. Dobrolyubov, P.F. Emelja- and Kazakov, 1982; Sokolov and Tembotov, 1989), nov, L.I. Zalutskaya, E.P. Kudzheva, N.F. Labunets, but fleas are known to occur on only about 80 of A.N. Roman, M.A. Tarasov, M.P. Tarasov, K.V. Kha- them. They parasitize various mammals of the orders rin, and K.Yu. Shkarlet were processed. Insectivora, Chiroptera, Carnivora, Artiodactyla, and Some data on the flea fauna of the Great Caucasus Rodentia. There are examples of some flea species were obtained by studying the stock collections and infesting representatives of different orders of mam- archives of Stavropol Anti-Plague Scientific Research mals. For instance, the fleas Hystrichopsylla talpae Institute, the Zoological Institute of the Russian Acad- and H. satunini, widely distributed in the Great Cauca- emy of Sciences (ZIN RAS), and also the Georgian, sus, occur on moles (Talpidae) in the middle mountain Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and Black Sea anti-plague sta- belt, and on voles (Arvicolinae) in the alpine tions. areas. ENTOMOLOGICAL REVIEW Vol. 95 No. 6 2015 730 KOTTI Table 1. Distribution of flea species of the Great Caucasus by the hosts Flea species Hosts Family Pulicidae Billberg, 1820 Pulex irritans L., 1758 wolf, red fox, swine Echidnophaga popovi Ioff et Argyropulo, 1934 badger, red fox Archaeopsylla erinacei (Bouche, 1835) northern white-breasted hedgehog Ctenocephalides felis (Bouche, 1835) domestic cat C. canis (Curtis, 1826) domestic dog Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild, 1903) brown rat X. conformis (Wagner, 1903) Lybian jird Family Vermipsyllidae Wagner, 1889 Chaetopsylla hyaenae (Kolenati, 1846) brown bear C. homoea Rothschild, 1906 least weasel, stoat C. trichosa Kohaut, 1903 badger, red fox C. globiceps (Taschenberg, 1880) red fox, badger C. korobkovae Tiflov et Kolpakova, 1937 red fox C. caucasica Smit, 1953 common and stone martens C. rothschildi Kohaut, 1903 common and stone martens C. mirabilis Ioff et Argyropulo, 1934 common and stone martens Family Coptopsyllidae Wagner, 1928 Coptopsylla caucasica Isayeva-Gurvich, 1950 Lybian jird Family Ceratophyllidae Dampf, 1908 Tarsopsylla octodecimdentata (Kolenati, 1863) red squirrel Myoxopsylla jordani Ioff et Argyropulo, 1934 forest and edible dormice Paraceras melis (Walker, 1856) badger Oropsylla idahoensis (Baker, 1904) Caucasian mountain ground squirrel Nosopsyllus laeviceps Wagner, 1909 Lybian jird N.
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