Flea (Siphonaptera) species richness in the Great Basin Desert and island biogeography theory

Abstract

Numbers of flea (Siphonaptera) species (flea species richness) on individual mammals should be higher on large mammals, mammals with dense populations, and mammals with large geographic ranges, if mammals are islands for fleas. I tested the first two predictions with regressions of H. J. Egoscue's trapping data on flea species richness collected from individual mammals against mammal size and population density from the literature. Mammal size and population density did not correlate with flea species richness. Mammal geographic range did, in earlier studies.

Fleas of mammals and patterns of distributional congruence in northwestern Argentina: A preliminary biogeographic analysis

“…Primary association of fleas with small mammals is observed in all parts of the world ( Krasnov, 2008 ). Fleas have evolutionary adaptations and ecological interactions with other organisms and it is estimated there are 2575 species in the world, therefore, fleas can be an excellent study group for geographic distribution analyses ( Krasnov et al., 2005 ; Hastriter and Whiting, 2009 ; Bossard, 2014 ). Krasnov (2008) proposed that geographical distribution of a flea species should be a result of interaction between its responses to the geographical distribution of host/s and to the off-host environment.…”