Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T18:11:21.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Host-finding behaviour of the rabbit flea, Spilopsyllus cuniculi with special reference to the significance of urine as an attractant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

J. A. Vaughan  and
A. R. Mead-Briggs
J. A. Vaughan
Affiliation:
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Pest Infestation Control Laboratory, Tangley Place, Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey
A. R. Mead-Briggs
Affiliation:
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Pest Infestation Control Laboratory, Tangley Place, Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Both fed and unfed rabbit fleas can move relatively slowly upwind towards a host. The speed of movement is too slow for direct host location from more than a few cm.

Fleas are strongly attracted to a urine bait, will remain gathered around it, and can move rapidly on to a host when one is present.

The attraction is produced by physiologically realistic amounts of urine, little increase being obtained from volumes greater than 15 ml, even over a tenfold range. The range of movement of fleas towards a urine bait obtained in our experiments was greater than 6 m but less than 9 m. The maximum survival time in pasture during summer and autumn was between 14 and 21 days.

The attractants are contained in urine and not in faeces, and are not restricted to the urine of rabbits or even of lagomorphs. Strong attraction was obtained towards hare and rat urines, and a low degree of attraction towards dog and human urine. Concentrated homogenates of rabbit anal glands gave low attraction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , December 1970 , pp. 397 - 409
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

Bates, J. K. (1962). Field studies on the behaviour of bird fleas. I. Behaviour of adults of three species of bird fleas in the field. Parasitology 52, 113–32.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. (1968). The host-finding behaviour of the hen-flea, Ceratophyllus gallinae (Schrank) (Siphonaptera). Parasitology 58, 403–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead-Briggs, A. R. (1964). Some experiments concerning the interchange of rabbit fleas, Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale), between living rabbit hosts. Journal of Animal Ecology 33, 13–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mykytowycz, R. (1966). Further observations on the territorial function and histology of the submandibular cutaneous (chin) glands in the rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L). Animal Behaviour 13, 400–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mykytowycz, R. (1967). Communication by smell in the wild rabbit. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 2, 125–31.Google Scholar
Rothschild, M. (1965). Fleas. Scientific American 213, 44–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southern, H. N. (1948). Sexual and aggressive behaviour in the wild rabbit. Behaviour 1, 173–94.Google Scholar
Suter, P. R. (1964). Biologie von Echidnophaga gallinacea (Westw.) und Vergleich mid andern Verhaltenstypen bei Flöhen. Acta tropica 21, 193–238.Google Scholar