Records of fleas (Siphonaptera) from Delaware.

We present an annotated checklist of fleas (Siphonaptera) known to occur in the state of Delaware based on an examination of Siphonaptera collections at the University of Delaware and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, as well as new specimens of fleas we collected from wildlife, other hosts, and tick flags. We review published records and compile them herein with our new records, which include 3 species previously unreported from Delaware. With these additions, there are now 18 flea species from 19 avian and mammalian hosts documented from Delaware.

A RANGE-WIDE ECTOPARASITE SURVEY FOR ALLEGHENY WOODRATS (NEOTOMA MAGISTER).

Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma magister) are karst-specializing rodents that are rare or in conservation need in many states within their current range. Parasitism and habitat fragmentation have been suggested as primary reasons for declining populations. The presence, prevalence, and impact of ectoparasites, including fleas, ticks, and bots, is not fully understood rangewide. We collected Allegheny woodrat ectoparasites across 8 states in their range, identifying parasites via morphological and genetic means. Across contributions from 8 states, we discovered 2 woodrat-specific fleas parasitizing Allegheny woodrats: Orchopeas pennsylvanicus (all contributing states, n = 228) and Epitedia cavernicola (Indiana only, n = 9). The former was a new state record in New Jersey and Ohio. Woodrat specialists Ixodes woodi were morphologically identified as the dominant tick species (n = 38), and our contributions to genetic databases may ease confusion in future efforts. Three generalist species of ticks representing 8 individuals were identified as Dermacentor variabilis, Amblyomma americanum, and Ixodes scapularis. Only 2 bot fly species were recognized in Allegheny woodrats: 1 squirrel bot (Cuterebra emasculator) and 10 individuals of Cuterebra sp. not genetically conspecific to any known eastern U.S. rodent bot. The host specificity for fleas is not surprising, given that previous small-scale surveys and ticks primarily appear to be a mix of genus-specific (Ixodes woodi) and generalist species. There remains uncertainty with bots via morphological and genetic analyses. Our survey presents a wide-ranging baseline survey for Allegheny woodrats across their range, emphasizing the diversity (or specificity) of parasite groups for this species. An understanding of Allegheny woodrats and the health impact of ectoparasites is imperative because they face myriad challenges rangewide, especially considering the bot-driven demise of 1 woodrat in our study. Ectoparasites can have a marked impact on already-declining woodrat populations across their range and should not be overlooked in future surveys.

A NEW SPECIES OF FLEA (SIPHONAPTERA: CTENOPHTHALMIDAE) PARASITIZING VOLES AT HIGH ELEVATIONS IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS OF TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA.

Both sexes of Catallagia appalachiensis n. sp. are described from high elevation spruce-fir forests in Sevier County, Tennessee and adjoining Swain County, North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The type host of the new flea is the southern red-backed vole, Myodes gapperi (Vigors) (25 flea specimens), although small numbers of specimens were also collected from a sympatric northern short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say) (2 fleas), a red squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben) (1 flea), and a North American deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus (Wagner) (1 flea). Infestation prevalences for these hosts are provided. The new species is compared morphologically with other known species of Catallagia, in particular with Catallagia borealis, the only other described congeneric flea in eastern North America. This is the first new species of flea to be described from the eastern United States since 1980.

Fleas (Siphonaptera) From the Puma, Puma concolor (Carnivora: Felidae), A Rangewide Review and New Records from Utah and Texas, USA.

Fleas have rarely been reported from the puma, Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771), despite its vast geographic range, its breadth of habitat use, and its diverse diet, all of which bring it into contact with many other species of mammals and potentially their fleas. We review the reported occurrence of 8 species of fleas from pumas, 7 of these species being from wild hosts and 1 species from a host in captivity, and we correct the mistaken report of 1 other flea species from the puma. We present 10 new records of 4 species of fleas from the puma in Utah and Texas. 2 of these flea species, Cediopsylla inaequalis inaequalis (Baker, 1895) and Odontopsyllus dentatus (Baker, 1904), represent new host records, and 1 species, Chaetopsylla setosa Rothschild, 1906, is a new state record for Utah as well as being 1 of the 2 southernmost known localities for this species. At least 7 of the 9 flea species now known from free-ranging pumas are species that are acquired by pumas from their prey. Pumas may be primary hosts of 2 flea species, but even these fleas may be from prey. Some of the flea species that parasitize pumas transmit sylvatic plague, and, since pumas are highly vagile and are known to become infected with plague, they may spread the disease through their dispersal of infected fleas. Pumas and their fleas also may be involved in the ecology of several other bacterial zoonoses, which are discussed.

Discovery of Arostrilepis tapeworms (Cyclophyllidea: Hymenolepididae) and new insights for parasite species diversity from Eastern North America.

Species of the genus Arostrilepis were discovered and definitively identified for the first time in rodents from geographically disparate localities along the Appalachian Mountain range of eastern North America (West Virginia, Virginia, and Maine). These are the first confirmed records for species of Arostrilepis occurring east of the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River in North America. Arostrilepis gardneri n. sp. is described on the basis of specimens obtained from two phylogenetically divergent rodent hosts: Southern Red-Backed Vole Myodes gapperi (Cricetidae: Arvicolinae) (from West Virginia) and the Woodland Jumping Mouse Napaeozapus insignis (Dipodidae: Zapodinae) (West Virginia, Virginia, and Maine). Additionally, in a mixed infection, specimens of Arostrilepis insperata n. sp. were also found in a Southern Red-Backed Vole from West Virginia. These previously unknown species are primarily distinguished from congeners based on shape, dimensions, and spination (pattern, shape, and size of spines) of the cirrus. Specimens of A. gardneri n. sp. are further characterized by the relative position and length of the cirrus-sac, arrangement of the testes, and relative size of the external seminal vesicle and seminal receptacle. Specimens of A. insperata n. sp. are structurally most similar to A. macrocirrosa from the western Nearctic and Palearctic but with consistently greater dimensions for the cirrus-sac, testes, and seminal receptacle. Phylogenetic analysis of Arostrilepis spp. using partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the nuclear second ribosomal internal transcribed spacer strongly supported the status of A. gardneri n. sp. and A. insperata n. sp. within an unresolved clade of congeners in Red-Backed Voles (Myodini and species of Myodes). Our observations extend the known geographic distribution for species of Arostrilepis to the Appalachian Mountains in either a disjunct or possibly continuous but patchy range across North America. Prior observations, summarizing field and museum collections, had suggested that geographic ranges for a diverse assemblage of Arostrilepis in North America were largely restricted to the north-western region of the continent, with historical connections to Beringia and Eurasia. Recognition of a more extensive distribution is consistent with a history of episodic biotic expansion and isolation under a dynamic of taxon pulses for arvicoline rodents and an associated parasite fauna in the Nearctic during the Quaternary. Occurrence in a dipodid rodent represents an event of host colonization from an arvicoline source.

Building an integrated infrastructure for exploring biodiversity: field collections and archives of mammals and parasites.

Museum specimens play an increasingly important role in predicting the outcomes and revealing the consequences of anthropogenically driven disruption of the biosphere. As ecological communities respond to ongoing environmental change, host-parasite interactions are also altered. This shifting landscape of host-parasite associations creates opportunities for colonization of different hosts and emergence of new pathogens, with implications for wildlife conservation and management, public health, and other societal concerns. Integrated archives that document and preserve mammal specimens along with their communities of associated parasites and ancillary data provide a powerful resource for investigating, anticipating, and mitigating the epidemiological, ecological, and evolutionary impacts of environmental perturbation. Mammalogists who collect and archive mammal specimens have a unique opportunity to expand the scope and impact of their field work by collecting the parasites that are associated with their study organisms. We encourage mammalogists to embrace an integrated and holistic sampling paradigm and advocate for this to become standard practice for museum-based collecting. To this end, we provide a detailed, field-tested protocol to give mammalogists the tools to collect and preserve host and parasite materials that are of high quality and suitable for a range of potential downstream analyses (e.g., genetic, morphological). Finally, we also encourage increased global cooperation across taxonomic disciplines to build an integrated series of baselines and snapshots of the changing biosphere. Los especímenes de museo desempeñan un papel cada vez más importante tanto en la descripción de los resultados de la alteración antropogénica de la biosfera como en la predicción de sus consecuencias. Dado que las comunidades ecológicas responden al cambio ambiental, también se alteran las interacciones hospedador-parásito. Este panorama cambiante de asociaciones hospedador-parásito crea oportunidades para la colonización de diferentes hospedadores y para la aparición de nuevos patógenos, con implicancias en la conservación y manejo de la vida silvestre, la salud pública y otras preocupaciones de importancia para la sociedad. Archivos integrados que documentan y preservan especímenes de mamíferos junto con sus comunidades de parásitos y datos asociados, proporcionan un fuerte recurso para investigar, anticipar y mitigar los impactos epidemiológicos, ecológicos y evolutivos de las perturbaciones ambientales. Los mastozoólogos que recolectan y archivan muestras de mamíferos, tienen una oportunidad única de ampliar el alcance e impacto de su trabajo de campo mediante la recolección de los parásitos que están asociados con los organismos que estudian. Alentamos a los mastozoólogos a adoptar un paradigma de muestreo integrado y holístico y abogamos para que esto se convierta en una práctica estándarizada de la obtención de muestras para museos. Con este objetivo, proporcionamos un protocolo detallado y probado en el campo para brindar a los mastozoólogos las herramientas para recolectar y preservar materiales de parásitos y hospedadores de alta calidad y adecuados para una gran variedad de análisis subsecuentes (e.g., genéticos, morfológicos, etc.). Finalmente, también abogamos por una mayor cooperación global entre las diversas disciplinas taxonómicas para construir una serie integrada de líneas de base y registros actuales de nuestra cambiante biosfera.

Host-Parasite Associations in Small Mammal Communities in Semiarid Savanna Ecosystems of East Africa.

Despite the established importance of rodents as reservoirs of vector-borne zoonoses in East Africa, there is relatively limited information regarding the infestation parameters and host associations of ectoparasites that vector many such pathogens among small mammals in this region. Between 2009 and 2013, small mammals were live-trapped in the semiarid savanna of Kenya. A subset of these individual hosts, including 20 distinct host taxa, was examined for ectoparasites, which were identified to species. Species of fleas, ticks, mites, and sucking lice were recorded. Based on these data, we calculated host-specific infestation parameters, documented host preferences among ectoparasites, conducted a rarefaction analysis and extrapolation to determine if ectoparasites were adequately sampled, and assessed nestedness for fleas to understand how pathogens might spread in this system. We found that the flea community structure was significantly nested. Understanding the ectoparasite network structure may have significant human relevance, as at least seven of the ectoparasite species collected are known vectors of pathogens of medical importance in the region, including Yersinia pestis, Rickettsia spp., and Theileria parva, the causative agents of plague, spotted fevers and other rickettsial illnesses in humans, and theileriosis, respectively.

Effects of land use on plague (Yersinia pestis) activity in rodents in Tanzania.

Understanding the effects of land-use change on zoonotic disease risk is a pressing global health concern. Here, we compare prevalence of Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of plague, in rodents across two land-use types-agricultural and conserved-in northern Tanzania. Estimated abundance of seropositive rodents nearly doubled in agricultural sites compared with conserved sites. This relationship between land-use type and abundance of seropositive rodents is likely mediated by changes in rodent and flea community composition, particularly via an increase in the abundance of the commensal species, Mastomys natalensis, in agricultural habitats. There was mixed support for rodent species diversity negatively impacting Y. pestis seroprevalence. Together, these results suggest that land-use change could affect the risk of local transmission of plague, and raise critical questions about transmission dynamics at the interface of conserved and agricultural habitats. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding disease ecology in the context of rapidly proceeding landscape change.

Drivers of Intensity and Prevalence of Flea Parasitism on Small Mammals in East African Savanna Ecosystems.

The relative importance of environmental factors and host factors in explaining variation in prevalence and intensity of flea parasitism in small mammal communities is poorly established. We examined these relationships in an East African savanna landscape, considering multiple host levels: across individuals within a local population, across populations within species, and across species within a landscape. We sampled fleas from 2,672 small mammals of 27 species. This included a total of 8,283 fleas, with 5 genera and 12 species identified. Across individual hosts within a site, both rodent body mass and season affected total intensity of flea infestation, although the explanatory power of these factors was generally modest (<10%). Across host populations in the landscape, we found consistently positive effects of host density and negative effects of vegetation cover on the intensity of flea infestation. Other factors explored (host diversity, annual rainfall, anthropogenic disturbance, and soil properties) tended to have lower and less consistent explanatory power. Across host species in the landscape, we found that host body mass was strongly positively correlated with both prevalence and intensity of flea parasitism, while average robustness of a host species to disturbance was not correlated with flea parasitism. Cumulatively, these results provide insight into the intricate roles of both host and environmental factors in explaining complex patterns of flea parasitism across landscape mosaics.

A new anoplocephalid cestode from the southern bog lemming Synaptomys cooperi.

A new cestode species, Anoplocephaloides bulmeri n. sp. (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae), is described from the southern bog lemming Synaptomys cooperi (Baird) from Virginia. The general morphology of A. bulmeri strongly suggests that it belongs to the monophyletic Anoplocephaloides Baer 1923 s. str. It differs unequivocally from the other species of Anoplocephaloides s. str. by the distribution of testes in the poral part of the proglottid and also by the number of testes and the maximum length of the cirrus sac and seminal receptacle. Anoplocephaloides bulmeri most closely resembles Anoplocephaloides kontrimavichusi Rausch, 1976, a host-specific parasite of the northern bog lemming, Synaptomys borealis (Richardson).

Eimeria species from Cryptotis shrews (Insectivora: Soricidae) with description of a new species.

Fresh fecal samples from 12 shrews, 10 Cryptotis goodwini Jackson, 1933, and 2 Cryptotis merriami Thomas, 1898, were collected between December 1994 and May 1998; 11 (92%) were positive for eimeriid coccidia, including 8 of 8 C. goodwini and 2 of 2 C. merriami from Honduras and 1 of 2 C. goodwini from Guatemala. Two Eimeria species were found: 1 is consistent with the description of Eimeria whitakeri Upton and McAllister, 1991, and 1 is described in this study as new. Sporulated oocysts of the new species are subspheroidal, 16.8 x 15.7 (14-20 x 15-19) microm, with a length-width (L/W) ratio of 1.1 (1.0-1.2); they lack a micropyle and oocyst residuum, but 1-2 polar granules are always present. Sporocysts are elongate and ovoidal, 8.4 x 6.0 (6-10 x 4.5-7.5) microm, with a L/W ratio of 1.4 (1.2-1.7) and have a Stieda body and sporocyst residuum. This is the 49th Eimeria species described from all Insectivora but only the third from Cryptotis species.