A number of small arthropods can bite man and his animals. These include arachnids such as spiders, ticks, chiggers, and insects such as head or body lice, fleas, mosquitoes, biting flies, amd others. All of these arthropods have different life cycles and biological requirements. Fleas are a particularly severe pest problem in many parts of the country. To properly develop an effective control program for fleas, it is necessary to first understand the biology of these insects.
Fleas are insects with a very specialized body design.
Like most insects, fleas have three pairs of legs, three body regions, and a pair of antennae. However, adult fleas lack wings. A flea's body design is specialized in that it has an oval and laterally flattened shape and large legs. This allows it to easily move between the hairs or feathers of its animal host. Other specialized body parts of a flea are the genal and pronotal combs.