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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature




                               THE FLEA




                      CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
                       London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
                          C. F. CLAY, MANAGER


[Illustration: LOGO]


                    Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
             London: H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C.
            WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND
                       Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
                       Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
                     New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
             Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.


                         _All rights reserved_




[Illustration:
  _After a drawing by Dr Jordan_
Oriental rat-flea (_Xenopsylla cheopis_ Rothsch.). Male.]




[Illustration; DECORATED FRONT PAGE:

                               THE FLEA

                                  BY

                            HAROLD RUSSELL,
                        B.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


                        With nine illustrations


                              Cambridge:
                        at the University Press

                                 1913]




                               Cambridge


                      PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
                        AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS


_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on
the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known
Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_




PREFACE


THE aim of this book is to give in plain language some account of a
small, but noteworthy, group of insects. I have avoided, whenever I
could, using the technical terms of zoology. To avoid doing so entirely
is impossible in a book which describes insects in some detail. No
technical term has, I hope, been used without an explanation.

Over thirty years have elapsed since Taschenberg’s German book, _Die
Flöhe_, appeared. Our knowledge has made enormous strides since then.
More species of flea are now known from the British Islands alone
than were then known from the whole world.