Comparative molecular and morphological study of Stenoponia tripectinata tripectinata (Siphonaptera: Stenoponiidae) from the Canary Islands and Corsica.

Stenoponia tripectinata tripectinata (Tiraboschi, 1902) is the most prevalent subspecies, within the genus Stenoponia, in the Mediterranean area. This rodent flea is widely distributed throughout southwestern Europe and the North of Africa including Mediterranean islands and the Canary Islands. Nevertheless, from a taxonomical and systematic point, this flea group has been neglected over the years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to carry out a comparative morphometric, phylogenetic, and molecular study of two populations of S. t. tripectinata isolated from rodents collected from different islands from the Canary Archipelago and from Corsica to clarify the taxonomic status of these two isolated populations and to assess the morphological and molecular differentiation between them. For this purpose, we have analyzed several morphological traits and sequenced five molecular markers (EF1-α, ITS2, cox1, cox2, and cytb). We observed slight differences in the overall body size between females of both populations, and two well-defined geographical genetic lineages. This suggests the existence of two cryptic subspecies within S. t. tripectinata corresponding to two different island groups. Furthermore, we bring to light the necessity to provide new and updated morphological, molecular, and phylogenetic data to clarify the taxonomic status of S. tripectinata.