The Fleas (Siphonaptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark

Book excerpt: This book is the first comprehensive account on the flea fauna of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Totally 89 species/subspecies are treated of which 69 have been found in the region. The remainder are known from neighboring areas and may turn up. The introductory part gives a brief historical overview of the earliest literature on fleas and a more detailed account of the Scandinavian literature up to the present. This is followed by a discussion of flea-host associations in relation to distribution in a general and Scandinavian perspective. Other chapters deal with life history, medical importance, morphology and collecting/preservation of fleas, and are followed by a flea–host index. The systematic part, amply illustrated with Frans Smit’s outstanding line drawings, provides identification keys to adult fleas from family to subspecies. For each species/subspecies relevant available information on synonymy, identification, distribution, host relations and biology is given. The book concludes with a summary of the provincial distribution of fleas in Fennoscandia and Denmark, a bibliography and a taxonomic name index.