flea, common name for any of the small, wingless insects insect, invertebrate animal of the class Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda. Like other arthropods, an insect has a hard outer covering, or exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed legs. Adult insects typically have wings and are the only flying invertebrates.
..... Click the link for more information. of the order Siphonaptera. The adults of both sexes eat only blood and are all external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas have hard bodies flattened from side to side and piercing and sucking mouthparts. Their legs are powerful and adapted for fast movement and jumping, enabling them to find new hosts as well as to escape quickly the attempts of the hosts to remove them. The adults can survive away from a host for several weeks without eating. Flea eggs are usually laid in dirt or in the nest of the host; the larvae feed on organic material and the feces of adult fleas. Metamorphosis metamorphosis [Gr.,=transformation], in zoology, term used to describe a form of development from egg to adult in which there is a series of distinct stages.
..... Click the link for more information. is complete; the larvae spin silken cocoons when ready to pupate. Many species are not specific to a particular host species, and cat and dog fleas, as well as the human flea of the warmer parts of Europe and Asia, attack humans. Certain rat fleas transmit typhus typhus, any of a group of infectious diseases caused by microorganisms classified between bacteria and viruses, known as rickettsias. Typhus diseases are characterized by high fever and an early onset of rash and headache.
..... Click the link for more information. and bubonic plague plague, any contagious, malignant, epidemic disease, in particular the bubonic plague and the black plague (or Black Death), both forms of the same infection.
..... Click the link for more information. to humans, and another species transmits tularemia tularemia or rabbit fever, acute, infectious disease caused by Francisella tularensis (Pasteurella tularensis). The greatest incidence is among people who handle infected wild rabbits.
..... Click the link for more information. from rabbits. Fleas also transmit several species of tapeworms tapeworm, name for the parasitic flatworms forming the class Cestoda. All tapeworms spend the adult phase of their lives as parasites in the gut of a vertebrate animal (called the primary host).
..... Click the link for more information. that sometimes infest humans. The chigoe chigoe or jigger, small parasitic flea of tropical America and the S United States. Humans and their domestic animals are the main hosts.
..... Click the link for more information. is a flea. Water fleas and beach fleas are crustaceans crustacean , primarily aquatic arthropod of the subphylum Crustacea. Most of the 44,000 crustacean species are marine, but there are many freshwater forms. The few groups that inhabit terrestrial areas have not been particularly successful in an evolutionary sense;
..... Click the link for more information. and not closely related to the insects. Fleas are classified in the phylum Arthropoda Arthropoda [Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, symphylans, pauropodans, and the extinct trilobites.
..... Click the link for more information. , class Insecta, order Siphonaptera.
Any member of 2,000 species and subspecies of small, wingless, bloodsucking (parasitic) insects (order Siphonaptera), found from the Arctic Circle to the Arabian deserts. Specialized anatomical structures allow the flea to attach itself to the skin of mammals or birds and consume their blood. Though domestic cats and dogs are well-known hosts, rodents are the mammals most commonly afflicted by fleas. The adult flea is 0.04–0.4 in. (1–10 mm) long and lives from a few weeks to more than a year. Powerful leg muscles allow it to jump distances up to 200 times its body length. Flea infestations have had enormous consequences; fleas were the principal transmission agents of the bubonic plague in the medieval epidemics.
flea
flea [flē]
..... Click the link for more information. of the order Siphonaptera. The adults of both sexes eat only blood and are all external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas have hard bodies flattened from side to side and piercing and sucking mouthparts. Their legs are powerful and adapted for fast movement and jumping, enabling them to find new hosts as well as to escape quickly the attempts of the hosts to remove them. The adults can survive away from a host for several weeks without eating. Flea eggs are usually laid in dirt or in the nest of the host; the larvae feed on organic material and the feces of adult fleas. Metamorphosis metamorphosis [Gr.,=transformation], in zoology, term used to describe a form of development from egg to adult in which there is a series of distinct stages.
..... Click the link for more information. is complete; the larvae spin silken cocoons when ready to pupate. Many species are not specific to a particular host species, and cat and dog fleas, as well as the human flea of the warmer parts of Europe and Asia, attack humans. Certain rat fleas transmit typhus typhus, any of a group of infectious diseases caused by microorganisms classified between bacteria and viruses, known as rickettsias. Typhus diseases are characterized by high fever and an early onset of rash and headache.
..... Click the link for more information. and bubonic plague plague, any contagious, malignant, epidemic disease, in particular the bubonic plague and the black plague (or Black Death), both forms of the same infection.
..... Click the link for more information. to humans, and another species transmits tularemia tularemia or rabbit fever, acute, infectious disease caused by Francisella tularensis (Pasteurella tularensis). The greatest incidence is among people who handle infected wild rabbits.
..... Click the link for more information. from rabbits. Fleas also transmit several species of tapeworms tapeworm, name for the parasitic flatworms forming the class Cestoda. All tapeworms spend the adult phase of their lives as parasites in the gut of a vertebrate animal (called the primary host).
..... Click the link for more information. that sometimes infest humans. The chigoe chigoe or jigger, small parasitic flea of tropical America and the S United States. Humans and their domestic animals are the main hosts.
..... Click the link for more information. is a flea. Water fleas and beach fleas are crustaceans crustacean , primarily aquatic arthropod of the subphylum Crustacea. Most of the 44,000 crustacean species are marine, but there are many freshwater forms. The few groups that inhabit terrestrial areas have not been particularly successful in an evolutionary sense;
..... Click the link for more information. and not closely related to the insects. Fleas are classified in the phylum Arthropoda Arthropoda [Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, symphylans, pauropodans, and the extinct trilobites.
..... Click the link for more information. , class Insecta, order Siphonaptera.
flea
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Flea (Ctenocephalides)
(credit: William E. Ferguson)
flea
1. any small wingless parasitic blood-sucking insect of the order Siphonaptera, living on the skin of mammals and birds and noted for its power of leaping
2. any of various invertebrates that resemble fleas, such as the water flea and flea beetle
flea [flē]
(invertebrate zoology)
Any of the wingless insects composing the order Siphonaptera; most are ectoparasites of mammals and birds.
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