Xenopsylla gratiosa is reported for the first time from the Maltese Islands. The species was found in an abandoned nest of a Cory’s Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea on the island of Filfla. Brief notes are included on previous records of fleas from the Maltese Islands and taxonomic, distributional and ecological notes are provided for Xenopsylla gratiosapeer-reviewe

Borg, John J.

Mifsud, David

Sultana, Joe

English

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ABSTRACT. Xenopsylla gratiosa is reported for the first time from the Maltese Islands. The species was found in an abandoned nest of a Cory’s Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea on the island of Filfla. Brief notes are included on previous records of fleas from the Maltese Islands and taxonomic, distributional and ecological notes are provided for Xenopsylla gratiosa.KEY WORDS. Malta, Filfla, flea, Siphonaptera, Xenopsylla, Cory’s Shearwater.INTRODUCTIONSiphonaptera (fleas) represent an order of insects with some 2,400 described species. They are highly modified, apterous, laterally compressed, holometabolous ectoparasites, with mouth parts modified for piercing and sucking; without true mandibles, with an elongate, serrate lacinial blade within a sheath formed by the maxillary and labial palps; epipharynx forming a long spine; gut with salivary pump to inject saliva into wounds and cibarial and pharyngeal pumps to suck up blood. Eggs are laid predominantly into the host’s habitat, where free-living, worm-like larvae develop on material such as shed skin debris from the host. High temperatures and humidity are required for development by many fleas, including those of domestic animals. The pupa is exarate and adecticous in a loose cocoon. Only few species are restricted to one host, with the majority of taxa being, more or less, polyxenous. Fleas predominantly use mammalian hosts.The fleas of the Maltese Islands are very poorly known with only 11 recorded species scattered in the entomological literature. Probably the first flea records for Malta were due to Zammit (1918) who recorded the following species: Pulex irritans Linnaeus, 1758, Leptopsylla segnis (Schönherr, 1811), Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild, 1903) and Nosopsyllus fasciatus (Bosc d’Antic, 1800). Savona-ventura (2002) reported that fleas were always closely monitored since they were considered as a valuable index in the spread of plague epidemics. Bernard (1937) cited Xenopsylla cheopis and Nosopsyllus fasciatus for Malta. Both these species are mainly associated with rats and hence their importance in connection with the plague outbreak in Malta at the time when Bernard was reporting. Beaucournu & Launay (1990) questioned the record of  N.  fasciatus for Malta, but a recent record of this species is now known from the island (Beaucournu in litt., vii.08), whereas they confirmed the presence of X. cheopis with material from Gozo. trauB et al. (1983) First record of Xenopsylla gratiosa Jordan & Rothschild, 1923 from the Maltese Islands (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae)David MIFSUD1, John J. BORG2  & Joe SULTANA3 1 University of Malta, JC-Department of Biology, Msida, Malta. E-mail: david.a.mifsud@um.edu.mt2 National Museum of Natural History, Vilhena Palace Mdina, Malta. E-mail: john.j.borg@gov.mt3 3, Dar ta’ Gajdoru, Gajdoru Street, Xagħra Gozo. E-mail: joesultana@maltanet.netBulletin of the entomological Society of malta (2008) Vol. 1 :  43-45                                                                       D. mifSuD, J. J. BoRg  & J. Sultana44mentioned Malta in the global distribution of Notopsyllus barbarus (Jordan & Rothschild, 1912) a flea which is mainly associated with rats and mice. Beaucournu & Launay (1990) in their monograph of the fleas of France and the West Mediterranean Basin cited two additional species. Echidnophaga murina (Tiraboschi, 1903), a species which is also mainly associated with rats and mice, and Archaeopsylla erinacei maura Jordan & Rothschild, 1912, which is mainly associated with the Algerian hedgehog, Atelerix algirus (Lereboullet, 1842), which is locally common. A new subspecies of flea, Leptopsylla algira vogeli Beaucournu, 1990, was described from material collected from Gozo on the Sicilian shrew, Crocidura sicula calypso Hutterer, 1991 (Beaucournu, 1990). mifSud (2000) mentioned three cosmopolitan fleas which were all collected from the Maltese Islands. These include the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835), the dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the human flea, Pulex irritans. In a semi-popular article, mifSud (2007) mentioned two fleas associated with a wild rabbit which was collected from the limits of Mellieħa (25.vi.2007): the rabbit flea, Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale, 1878) and the cat flea Ctenocephalides felis felis.Recently, flea material collected from the island of Filfla and handed over to the senior author for identification proved to represent a new record for Malta. The island of Filfla is situated about 5 km south of Malta. It has a surface area of about 350 m2 and its flat-topped plateau is 60 m above sea-level. For over a century the island was used as a target practice for air and naval gunners, but all bombing was stopped in 1971. Filfla holds the largest known colony of Storm petrel, Hydrobates pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean (c.a. 8,000 breeding pairs), some 50-80 pairs of Cory’s Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea (Scopoli, 1769) and about 150 pairs of Yellow-legged Gulls, Larus michahellis Naumann, 1840 (Borg & SuLtana, 2002). In view of its ornithological and ecological importance the island was declared a nature reserve.Xenopsylla gratiosa Jordan & Rothschild, 1923Material examined: MALTESE ISLANDS: FILFLA: south eastern side, 10.ix.2007, 4 exs., from a recently abandoned nest of a Cory’s Shearwater, Calonectris diomedea situated under a boulder, leg. J.J.Borg.Taxonomic notes: The genus Xenopsylla Glinkiewicz, 1907 (Pulicidae: Xenopsyllinae) is mainly distributed in the Afrotropical Region with few representatives in the South Palaearctic, Oriental and Australasian Regions. In the Mediterranean Basin, this genus is represented by 11 species and of these only X. gratiosa is associated with birds while all the others are associated with mammalian hosts (Beaucournu & Launay, 1990). X. gratiosa is readily distinguished from its congeners occurring in the said region by the following morphological characteristics: unique tarsal chaetotaxis, the presence of 4 spines on tarsal segment I (in males), a ventral ‘tooth’ on femur III and characteristic male and female genitalia (Beaucournu & Launay, 1990).Global Distribution: Southern France (including Corsica), Portugal, Greece, Canary Islands, Tunisia and Malta.Ecology: Xenopsylla gratiosa is mainly a specific parasite of the Cory’s Shearwater. However the species can also be found on the Storm petrel and on the Yelkouan Shearwater, Puffinus  yelkouan (Acerbi, 1827) and accidentally it can also be found on humans.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe first author would like to thank Dr Jean-Claude Beaucournu for all his assistance during the preparation of this paper, for confirming the identity of flea species collected from Malta and for all his useful suggestions. Thanks also to Mr David Dandria for reviewing this work and for pointing out early records of fleas from Malta.REFERENCESBeaucournu, J.c. (1990) Leptopsylla algira vogeli n. ssp. (Siphonaptera, Ceratophyllidae, Leptopsyllinae), parasite de Crocidure (Mammalia, Insectivora, Crocidurinae) sur l’ĭle de Gozo (Archipel de Malte). Bonn. Zool. Beitr., 41 (3-4): 213-222.Beaucournu, J.c. & Launay, H. (1990) Les Puces (Siphonaptera) de France et du Bassin méditerranéen occidental. Faune de France, 76. Fédération Française des Sociétés de Sciences Naturelles. 548 pp.Bernard, a.v. (1937) Report on plague in Malta in 1936. In: Annual report on the health of the Maltese Islands for 1936. Valletta.Borg, J.J. & SuLtana, J. (2002) Status and distribution of the breeding Procellariiformes in Malta. Il-Merill, 30: 10-15.mifSud, d. (2000) Present knowledge of the Entomofauna of the Maltese Islands. Entomologica Basiliensia, 22: 75-86.mifSud, d. (2007) The fleas. Pp.14-15 + 1 pl. In: caraBott, r. [ed.] Rabbit breeding and associated problems. No. 10. Rabbit Co-operative Society. 16 pp. [in Maltese].trauB, r., rotHScHiLd, m. & Haddow, J.f. (1984) The Rothschild Collection of Fleas. The Ceratophyllidae: key to the genera and host relationships, with notes on their Evolution, Zoogeography and Medical importance. In: trauB, r., rotHScHiLd, m. & Haddow, J.f. [eds.] The Rothschild Collection of Fleas. The Ceratophyllidae. Academic Press, London, xv + 288 pp.Savona-ventura c. (2002) Parasites and pests of medical significance in the Maltese environment – a historical review of culprit species. The Central Mediterranean Naturalist, 3 (4): 149 -152.Zammit, t. (1918) Rats and parasites in plague epidemics. Archivum Melitensis, 3: 141-143.first record of Xenopsylla gratiosa                                                                          45Received: May 3, 2008Accepted: June 17, 2008I S S N  :  2 0 7 0 - 4 5 2 6Date of  Publication :  31 st August  2008© Entomological Society of Malta, 2008© The Authors, 2008

First record of Xenopsylla gratiosa Jordan & Rothschild, 1923 from the Maltese Islands (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae)

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First record of Xenopsylla gratiosa Jordan & Rothschild, 1923 from the Maltese Islands (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae)

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