Ectoparasite fauna of rodents collected from two wildlife research centres in Saudi Arabia with discussion on the implications for disease transmission

The majority of human pathogens are zoonotic and rodents play an important role as reservoirs of manyof these infectious agents. In the case of vector-borne pathogens, rodent reservoirs not only act as a sourceof infection for vectors but also serve as hosts for the vectors themselves, supporting their populations.Current data on rodent-ectoparasite relationships is limited in Saudi Arabia, however, this is needed toassess disease risk and the relative importance of different hosts for the maintenance of vector-bornepathogen cycles. In order to provide baseline data for the region that could be used to assess zoonoticdisease risk, we collected and identified 771 ectoparasite specimens (ticks, fleas and mites) from 161rodents at two wildlife research centres in Saudi Arabia and discuss our results in the context of possiblezoonotic disease risk based on the hosts and vectors present.Deanship of Scientific Research at the King Saud University through the research group project number RGP_VPP_020, a University of Pretoria Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to A. Harrison and by the DST-NRF South African Research Chair of Behavioural Ecology and Physiology awarded to N.C. Bennett.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/actatropica2016-07-31hb201

Figure 14-18. 14-16. Aphropsylla truncata n in A description of four new species of fleas (Insecta, Siphonaptera) from Angola, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and Peru

Figure 14-18. 14-16. Aphropsylla truncata n. sp. 14. Aedeagus, paratype ♁ (B-74177). 15. Hind femur and tibia, allotype ♀. 16. Hind tarsi, holotype ♁. 17. Aphropsylla conversa, hind tarsi, holotype ♁. 18. Aphropsylla wollastoni, hind tarsi, lectotype ♁. Scale 14 = 100 µm, 15-18 = 200 µmPublished as part of Hastriter, Michael, 2009, A description of four new species of fleas (Insecta, Siphonaptera) from Angola, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and Peru, pp. 39-61 in ZooKeys 8 (8) on page 44, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.8.82, http://zenodo.org/record/57644

A description of four new species of fleas (Insecta, Siphonaptera) from Angola, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, and Peru

Four new species of fleas are described: Aphropsylla truncata sp. n. (Ethiopia), Ectinorus hirsutus sp. n. (Peru), Rhinolophopsylla traubi sp. n. (Angola), and Thaumapsylla wilsoni sp. n. (Papua New Guinea). Our understanding of the genus Aphropsylla is deficient, therefore a discussion of host/parasite relationships and new records from Uganda are provided. A key is provided for the genus Aphropsylla, while representatives of the other three genera are associated with existing keys to facilitate their identification. The presence of lucodiscs on Apropsylla and other genera is briefly discussed. The occurrence of lucodiscs among representatives of the order Siphonaptera deserves further investigation

Memory reduction in MLFMA through target rotation

A new technique to reduce the memory required by MLFMA is presented. Reductions on the order of 50% are possible for targets with a dominant length whose bounding boxes can be shrunk significantly. The memory is dramatically reduced for the radiation patterns and near neighbor interactions.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Ceratophyllus altus Tipton and Mendez (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae) in Chile, with notes on the distribution of the genus Ceratophyllus Curtis 1832 in the Southern Hemisphere

Volume: 103Start Page: 582End Page: 58

Echidnophaga suricatta (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), a new species of flea from the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Echidnophaga suricatta (Pulicidae), a new species of flea collected from the meerkat (Suricata suricatta Schreber, 1776) near Garies (30°22’S, 17°31’E) and Brandvlei (30°27’S, 20°29’E), Northern Cape Province, South Africa, is described. Based on chaetotaxy of the tarsal segments, this new species is most closely related to E. bradyta Jordan & Rothschild, 1906, E. iberica Ribeiro, Lucientes, Osacar & Calvete, 1994, E. macronychia Jordan & Rothschild, 1906, and E. ochotona Li, 1957. A key is provided for the 23 recognized species or subspecies in the genus Echidnophaga.Keywords: taxonomy, morphology, taxonomic key, mammalian ectoparasites, arthropod