THE COMPARISON BETWEEN FLEA COMMUNITIES ON TEN SPECIES OF SMALL MAMMALS IN THE FOCI OF HUMAN PLAGUE IN YUNNAN CHINA

Abstract

Abstract Fleas on the body surface of a certain species of small mammal form a special flea community. On the basis of a series of calculations, a comparison of flea communities on ten species of small mammals in the foci of human plague in Yunnan Province, China, was carried out through a fuzzy clustering analysis. The three flea communities on Rattus flavipectus, Rattus nitidus and Rattus rattus sladeni, which belong to the same genus (genus Rattus) showed a higher similarity than others and they clustered into a group in the phenogram of the clustering analysis. Other flea communities on Anourosorez squamipes Suncus murinus Crocidura attenuata Apodemus draca Eothenomys eleusis, Niviventer confucianus and Mus pahari showed lower similarities between each other. The result suggests that the small mammal hosts may be the most important factor which strongly influence the similarity of ectoparasitic flea communities. When the hosts have a close affinity in the taxonomy, the flea communities on their body surface tend to be similar. The hosts in different genera in this case study tend to have different types of ectoparasitic flea communities.