CTENOCEPHALIDES FELIS
Cat Flea, it’s a very common parasite insect, this parasite insect makes a [domestic cat] as their principal host. This species also can be found in a high proportion of them on the dog. The cat flea is known as Ctenocephalides Felis, meanwhile Dog flea known as Ctenocephalides Canis. This type of parasite belongs to the insect order Siphonaptera or the Tube-Drinking wingless insect. It is an obligatory Hematophage when they achieve adult. The male and female sexes usually a reddish brown color and it range from 1-2 mm long. The female fleas usually appear in cream and dark brown color, this is because of the female's abdomen often swell with their eggs. The cat flea often slips between hairs of its host and compress laterally at the top layer of their host skin. Their deeds can result that they difficult to see and also difficult to observe even on a pure white cat. The fleas are survived and maintain its lifecycles on the Carnivore and also on the Omnivores for the rest of its life. For your information, the cat fleas do not leave their host, if a flea leaves and separate from their host, it will die because of the starvation.
Cat Flea Life Cycles
There is 4 stage of the flea life cycle, the first stage is the egg, then larva, after that pupa and the last stage is adult or imago. Before the adult fleas capable to perform the reproduction they need to suck on the blood from their host first. In a host, fleas can be distributed to 4 population of their lifecycles, 5% of adults, 10% of pupae, 35% of larvae and 50% of Egg. Almost 30 microscopic eggs can be produced by an adult female flea after they consume the blood. They can produce as many as 8000 eggs in her lifetime and the eggs are freely dispersed into the environment. A certain proportion of the eggs takes 2-7 weeks to hatch into larvae.
For your information, the cat flea larva like a grub and its length is ~2 mm. The larvae are hiding in their substrate and it is –ve to the light (-ve phototropic). The larva needs a moist and warm environment, they also need a suitable temperature, it will die if the environment temperature is near freezing. They feed on a variety of organic substance like the dried blood on this development stages. Before spinning a cocoon and entering the pupal stage, the flea larvae metamorphose will go through into 4 stages. The cocoon needs a coat of camouflage to protect them from surrounding dirt and dust, this is because the cocoon is adhesive. Meanwhile, on pupal stages, the temperature and the moisture of the environment is playing an important role to complete the stage and it takes 1 or more week to complete this stage.
To detect a potential host the new fleas will use the variations in light and shadow that can increase the Carbon Dioxide and also the warmth. Within a sec, they will jump to a new host and they will be feeding on the host blood. The flea can cause a little harm and disease to the host, the disease like a flea allergy dermatitis often occurs to a host, this is because of the substance that contains in the flea’s saliva. Not only that, if there are large infestations in a small animal it can cause the animal can lose the animal body fluid. This may result in Dehydration to the small animal. Cat flea also suspected to be a transmission agent of plague and is also responsible for disease transmission through humans. I will stop here, thanks for reading and keep following My Biologist’s Adventure.
Reference :
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_flea
2. European wildcat species account Archived 2013-03-08 at the Wayback Machine. IUCN Species Survival Commission. Cat Specialist Group
3. Sue Paterson (16 March 2009). Manual of Skin Diseases of the Dog and Cat. John Wiley & Sons. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-4443-0932-4.
4. "Cat flea". Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Retrieved 2008-10-17.Rust, MK; Dryden, MW (1997). "The biology, ecology, and management of the cat flea".
5. Rust, MK; Dryden, MW (1997). "The biology, ecology, and management of the cat flea". Annual Review of Entomology. 42: 451–73. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.42.1.451. PMID 9017899.
6. Dennis Jacobs; Mark Fox; Lynda Gibbons; Carlos Hermosilla (5 October 2015). Principles of Veterinary Parasitology. Wiley. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-118-97744-6.
7. Fleas. P.G. Koehler and F. M. Oi. Printed July 1993, revised February 2003. Provided by the University of Florida
8. Crosby, J.T. What is the Life Cycle of the Flea. Accessed 6 August 2012
9. Insects and Ticks: Fleas". Entomology Department at Purdue University. Retrieved 2008-09-08
10. The Biology, Ecology and Management of the Cat Flea" (PDF). University of California, Riverside. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-05. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
11. Teltow GJ, Fournier PV, Rawlings JA (May 1991). "Isolation of Borrelia burgdorferi from arthropods collected in Texas". Am J Trop Med Hyg. 44 (5): 469–74. PMID 2063950.
12. https://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/epubs/e-433.cfm
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