Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-lvtdw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-16T11:55:30.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Temperature as a critical factor in the mating behaviour of the rat flea, Nosopsyllus fasciatus (Bosc.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Q. J. Iqbal
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aston in Birmingham
David A. Humphries
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aston in Birmingham

Extract

1. Both male and female N. fasciatus normally require a blood meal before they will mate.

2. Fed males do not attempt to mate with unfed females. It is suggested that the taking of a blood meal enables the female to provide a stimulus necessary for the male to show mating behaviour.

3. Unfed Nosopsyllus of both sexes will mate if subjected to a temperature between 30 and 35°C inclusive. Above 35° mating does not occur.

4. Below 30°C mating occurs only if the fleas have previously been subjected to a temperature of 30°C or above. A temperature rise to the critical point thus acts as a trigger for an enabling process which continues after temperature has again fallen.

5. It is suggested that the effect of a blood meal in enabling mating to occur may be explained by the fleas' experience, while on the host, of a rise in temperature to the level critical for mating.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bacot, A. W. (1914). A study of the bionomics of the common rat fleas and other species associated with human habitations, with special reference to the influence of temperature and humidity at various periods in the life history of the insect. Journal of Hygiene, Plague supplement 3.Google Scholar
Holland, G. P. (1955). Primary and secondary sexual characteristics of some Ceratophyllinae, with notes on the mechanism of copulation (Siphonaptera). Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 107, 233–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphries, D. A. (1963). The behaviour of certain fleas in relation to their development and ecology. Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham.Google Scholar
Humphries, D. A. (1967). The mating behaviour of the hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae (Schrank) (Siphonaptera: Insecta). Animal Behaviour 15, 8290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Humphries, D. A. (1969). Behavioural aspects of the ecology of the sand martin flea Ceratophyllus styx jordani Smit (Siphonaptera). Parasitology 59, 311–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madge, D. S. (1961). The control of relative humidity with aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide. Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 4, 143–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead-Briggs, A. R. (1964). The reproductive biology of the rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) and the dependence of this species upon the breeding of its host. Journal of Experimental Biology 41, 371402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead-Briggs, A. R. & Vaughan, J. A. (1969). Some requirements for mating in the rabbit flea, Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale). Journal of Experimental Biology, 51, 495511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitzmain, M. B. (1910). General observations on the bionomics of the rodent and human fleas. Public Health Bulletin, Washington, no. 38.Google Scholar
Poole, V. V. & Underhill, R. A. (1953). Biology and life history of Megabothris clantoni clantoni (Siphonaptera: Dolichopsyllidae). Walla Walla College Publications of the Department of Biological Sciences and the Biological Station 9, 119.Google Scholar
Rothschild, M. & Ford, B. (1966). Hormones of the vertebrate host controlling ovarian regression and copulation of the rabbit flea. Nature (London) 211, 261–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strickland, C. (1914). Biology of Ceratophyllus fasciatus Bosc. Journal of Hygiene 14, 129–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waterston, J. (1912). On some habits and hosts of bird Ceratophylli taken in Scotland in 1909; with description of a new species (C. rothschildi), and records of various Siphonaptera. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 18, 7391.Google Scholar