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The adults are roughly 1.5 to 4 mm in length and are laterally flattened. They are dark brown in color, are wingless, and have piercing-sucking mouthparts that aid in feeding on the host's blood. Both genal and pronotal combs are absent and the adult flea has a rounded head. Most fleas are distributed in the egg, larval, or pupal stages.
Without a host to provide a blood meal, a flea's life can be as short as a few days. Under ideal conditions of temperature, food supply, and humidity, adult fleas can live for up to a year and a half. [16] Completely developed adult fleas can live for several months without eating, so long as they do not emerge from their puparia. Optimum ...
The pests live in four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult fleas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults are commonly found on pets and feast on their blood for ...
The most infamous flea-to-human transmitted disease is the bubonic plague, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Septicemic plague is a systemic disease involving infection of the blood and is most commonly spread by bites from infected fleas. Septicemic plague can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation and is always fatal when untreated. The other varieties of the plague are bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. [1]
Cat fleas are holometabolous (undergo complete metamorphosis) insects and therefore go through four life cycle stages of egg, larva, pupa, and imago (adult). Adult fleas must feed on blood before they can become capable of reproduction. [10] Flea populations are distributed with about 50% eggs, 35% larvae, 10% pupae, and 5% adults. [11]
Males are still mobile after a blood meal like other fleas, but the female flea burrows head-first into the host's skin, leaving the caudal tip of its abdomen visible through an orifice in a skin lesion. This orifice allows the flea to breathe, defecate, mate and expel eggs while feeding from blood vessels.
Tungiasis is an inflammatory skin disease caused by infection with the female ectoparasitic Tunga penetrans, a flea also known as the chigoe, chigo, chigoe flea, chigo flea, jigger, nigua, sand flea, or burrowing flea (and not to be confused with the chigger, a different arthropod).