Aphropsylla conversa
Creators: name: Hastriter, Michael
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Siphonaptera
Pulicidae
Aphropsylla
Aphropsylla conversa

description: <i>Aphropsylla conversa</i> (Jordan &amp; Rothschild, 1913) (Figs. 3, 8, 11, 13, 17) <i>Ctenocephalus conversus</i> Jordan &amp; Rothschild. 1913. Novitates Zoologicae, 20:231-232. <i>Aphropsylla conversus</i> Jordan. 1932:292-293; Hopkins. 1947:152. <i>Aphropsylla conversa</i> Hopkins &amp; Rothschild. 1953:133; Cheetham. 1988:35; Beaucournu. 2004:190. <b>Material Examined.</b> Holotype ♁, <b>Kenya:</b> Mutaragwa, Aberdare Range, [̴ 0°08’S, 36°07’E], ex. <i>Lophuromys testudo</i> = <i>Lophiomys imhausi</i> Milne-Edwards, 15 III 1910, Robin Kemp (BMNH); “neallotype” &amp;female;, same data as holotype except ex. <i>Dendrohyrax crawshayi</i> = <i>Dendrohyrax arboreus</i> (A. Smith), 17 III 1910 (BMNH); paratype ♁, same data as holotype except <i>Genetta stuhlmanni</i> Mataschie = <i>Genetta maculata</i> (Gray), 23 III 1910, Robin Kemp (BMNH); 5 ♁, 4&amp;female;, <b>Uganda:</b> Bumagabula, foot of Butandiga [̴ 1°10’N, 34°22’E], west side of Mt. Elgon, 2135 m elev., ex. “on man (acc.)”, 22 II 1961, A.W. R. McCrae (BMNH). <b>New Records.</b> <i>Uganda:</i> nr Bumagabula, foot of Butandiga [̴ 1°10’N, 34°22’E], west side of Mt. Elgon, 2135 m elev., ex. “on man (acc.)”, 20 II 1961, A.W. R. McCrae (British Museum Reg. No. 1961-684), 5 ♁, 4&amp;female; (BMNH). <b>Remarks.</b> When Jordan and Rothschild described this species, they erroneously labeled one female (same data as holotype) as a “neallotype”. It is presumed they ment “ allotype ” and not “neallotype” or neoallotype. Host preferences for this species of <i>Aphropsylla</i> are virtually unknown since only a single specimen had been collected from each of the three known host species (other than man). <i>Genetta maculata</i>, a small agile and scansorial carnivore, is certainly an accidental host, likely infested with one specimen correlated with the host’s carnivorous habits. <i>Lophiomys imhausi</i> and <i>D. arboreus</i> are both herbivores. Although the latter is arboreal, the single specimen recorded from it is also likely accidental. Th e label data for the nine specimens reported here, all indicate that the host was “on man” and it is presumed that the collector (or labeler) assumed man was an “acc. =?accidental” host. Unfortunately, the circumstances are not known surrounding the collection of no less than nine specimens from a human. There was surely some intimate contact with a bird or mammal nest by the “human host”. Th e fact that a sizable series of the new species described below was collected from bird nests (and not from a mammal per se) might suggest that the genus has close evolutionary affi nities to avian hosts.
description: Published as part of <i>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)</i> on pages 42-44, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.8.82, http://zenodo.org/record/576443
description: {"references": ["Jordan K, Rothschild NC (1913) Siphonaptera collected by Mr. Robin Kemp in tropical Africa. Novitates Zoologicae 20: 528 - 581."]}