Flea News 52
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flea NEWS 52 Department of Entomology Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 outFleaNews.html> or through eith-er Gopher or anonymous FTP: Table of Contents <gopher.ent.iastate.edu> in the "Pub- Announcement...............................602 lications" directory. Electronic vers- ions are available for No. 46, July, Donors..............................................610 1993; No. 47, December, 1993; No. 48, Editorial...........................................596 July, 1994; No. 49, December, 1994; Literature........................................602 No 50, June, 1995; No. 51, December, 1995 and this number. Miscellanea.....................................599 The opinions and assertions New Species...................................602 contained herein are the private ones FLEA NEWS is a biannual newsletter of the author and are not to be con- devoted to matters involving insects strued as official or as reflecting the belonging to the order Siphonaptera views of the Department of Entomol- (fleas) and related subjects. It is com- ogy, Iowa State University or Sandoz piled and distributed free of charge by Animal Health. Robert E. Lewis ([email protected]) with the support of the Department of ❊❖❊❖❊❖❊ Entomology at Iowa State University, Ames, IA, and a grant in aid from Editorial Sandoz Animal Health, based in Des It has now been slightly over 22 years Plaines, IL. It is mainly bibliograph-ic since Flea News was conceived by Mr. in nature. Many of the sources are F.G.A.M. Smit, then Curator of fleas at abstracting journals and title pages the British Museum (Natural History. and not all citations have been check- Prior to 1972 the combined Rothschild ed for completeness or accuracy. Ad- and British Museum coll-ection of fleas ditional information will be provided resided in the small village of Tring, upon written or e-mail request. Fur- Hartfordshire, ~20 miles NW of ther, recipients are urged to contri-bute London. During collect-ion items of interest to the profess-ion for reorganization in 1972, the fleas were inclusion herein. transferred to the main muse-um This newsletter is now avail-able building on Cromwell Road, Sou-th in electronic format. The prefer-red Kensington, where they are cur-rently method of accessing the electron-ic housed. version is through the WorldWide Web From February of 1973 to June at the following Universal Res-ource of 1980, Smit produced 20 issues of Locator: <http://www.public. Flea News totalling 205 pages of text iastate.edu/~entomology/FleaNews/Ab JULY 1996 596 and bibliographic information pert- need of revision. One of the major aining to fleas and related matters on a families, the Ceratophyll-idae, has worldwide basis. In addition, in never been treated on a worldwide conjunction with his assistant he also basis except by Traub et al. (1983) and sent out A list of code numbers of Lewis (1990), neither of which went species and subspecies of Siphonapt-era beyond a superficial list-ing of the (1978a) and A catalogue of prim-ary extant taxa. Smit's key in Traub et al. type-specimens of Siphonaptera in the laid the basis for a taxon-omic revision British Museum (Natural History) of the family, but there are still many (1978b) which were distribut-ed as undescribed genera and species appendices to the newsletter. Since belonging to this family. Until these Smit's retirement in 1980, Flea News become a part of the liter-ature a has been continued, in some-what taxonomic revision of this im-portant modified form, from the Entom-ology family will not be possible. Following Department here at Iowa State are a few additional con-siderations University. involving the order that require study. In issue number 20 Smit indi- At the end of 1995 there were cated that during the years 1973 to 3011 named taxa in the literature at early 1980 he had listed 1605 titles, for the species or sub-species level. Of an average of 227 per annum. I have these, 2565 were considered valid and kept a tally of the numbers of papers 798, or 31% of these were treated as cited in Flea News since its inception subspecies. The remaining 446 nam-es and, as of this issue, the number are either junior synonyms or of stands at 5939, an average of 258 per questionable status I know of no oth-er annum Granted, this is not an accu- group of organisms, with the poss-ible rate figure since it does not take into exception of pocket gophers, whe-re consideration works that have been such a high percentage of subspec-ies overlooked during this period or the few has been erected. A dozen of the worst cases where papers have been cited in examples of subspecies infla-tion are more than one issue. How-ever, in this the following genera: type of endeavour there is no such Typhloceras 100% thing as completeness and the Pariodontis 80.0% numbers can only sugest a trend. A Thrassis 80.0% review of these citations indicates a Foxella 78.5% dimunition in taxonomic studies, with a Mesopsylla 76.4% few notable exceptions, and an increase Ophthalmopsylla 66.6% in experimental and applied works. Orchopeas 65.0% This is particularly the case with Leptopsylla 63.3% control measures such as insect Frontopsylla 57.5% growth regulators (IGRs) and syst- Ctenophthalmus 57.5% emics. Hystrichopsylla 56.2% Does this mean that taxonomic Peromyscopsylla 54.8% and systematic studies of the Siphon- There are many additional genera with aptera are nearing completion? Most 40% or higher. At a glance it would assuredly not! Of the landmark series appear that our knowledge of the order of catalogues published by the British is so advanced that popula-tion Museum from 1953 to 1987, only the analysis is possible in a very de-tailed last volume can be consider-ed current manner. This could explain how the and the earliest vol-umes are badly in Ctenophthalmus agyrtes complex could 597 contain 23 subspecies in what is and associating fleas as close relatives genarally treated as west-ern Europe, of the Diptera, or two winged flies. This or the Stenoponia tripect-inata arrangement may be sup-ported by complex could have 14 subspec-ies in recent studies of 18S and 28S rDNA northern Africa and the east-ern sequences, but the details are only now Mediterranean, or that Foxella ignota in the process of being pub-lished. At could contain 11 subspecies in roughly this point I know of no studies using the western half of North America. techniques such as the Polymerase While that is one interpre-tation, it is Chain Reaction (PCR), nuclear RNA really quite misleading. From a gene sequencing or mitochondrial DNA technical point of view, a sub-species is sequencing that have been developed a race of a species that is assigned its relatively rec-ently. Perhaps the time own Latin name in much the same way will come in the not-too-distant future that species are assigned names. when tech-niques such as these will be However, there are no clear rules for applied to the mystery of flea identifying subspec-ies except that phylogeny both within and beyond the they must be geogra-phically distinct ordinal level populations, not merely morphs, and On the fossil front, there are only that they must differ to some extent a few fossils that are unarguably fleas from other geo-graphic segments of the in the modern definition. So far these total popula-tion. Since they are all seem to be restricted to deposits of supposed to belong to the same species Baltic and Domincan amber. The two they shou-ld be able to interbreed and that have been described from Baltic produce hybrids where the populations amber belong to a recognizable modern im-pinge upon each other. There are genus, Palaeopsylla, assign-ed to the very few cases where this sort of hystrichopsylloid family evidence is available, and most sub- Ctenophthalmidae. Those in Domini- species are named with little regard for can amber, though as yet undescrib-ed, comparative data. In other words, appear to be rhopalopsyllids or pulicids. recognition and description of Though there is much to be learned subspecies is a rather arbitrary pro- from these fossils it is unlike-ly that cedure and may be driven by forces they will contribute much to other than scientific precision. Until phylogenetic theory within the order. these trinomials can be examined and Although the world fauna is validated by the scientific com-munity better known than might be expected, their legitimacy must remain a matter there are still large areas that should of speculation. be sampled. This is particularly true of On a more positive note, there Central and South America, but even are more tools available to taxonom- parts of western United States are still ists today to explore the ordinal and in need of intensive collect-ing. In fact, infraordinal relationships of organ-isms much collecting has been done but the than ever before. The ancestors of the records remain un-published and are order Siphonaptera are difficult to thus inaccessible to the scientific determine beyond speculation due to community. the high degree of morphological In summary, there are still modification imposed by an ectopara- many opportunities for researches into sitic life style. Most workers have be- fleas at many different levels and much en relatively comfortable in deriving alpha taxonomy remains to be done the order from some mecopteroid stock 598 before the world fauna is proper-ly submis-sion of paper titles. February understood and elucidated. 28th is the cut-off for hotel reservations and preregistration ($100 ❏❄❏❄❏❄❏ full, $50 student and $150 on-site). Titles and 250 word abstracts should MISCELLANEA be submitted to Dr.