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1 September 2015 The Fleas of Endemic and Introduced Small Mammals in Central Highland Forests of Madagascar: Faunistics, Species Diversity, and Absence of Host Specificity
Steven M. Goodman, H. Rico Randrenjarison Andriniaina, Voahangy Soarimalala, Jean-Claude Beaucournu
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Abstract

Data are presented on the flea species of the genera Paractenopsyllus (Ceratophyllidae, Leptopsyllinae) and Synopsyllus (Pulicidae, Xenopsyllinae) obtained from small mammals during two 2014 seasonal surveys at a montane humid forest site (Ambohitantely) in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. The mammal groups included the endemic family Tenrecidae (tenrecs) and subfamily Nesomyinae (rodents) and two introduced families Muridae (rodents) and Soricidae (shrews); no fleas were recovered from the latter family. The surveys were conducted at the end of the wet and dry seasons with 288 individual small mammals captured, including 12 endemic and four introduced species. These animals yielded 344 fleas, representing nine species endemic to Madagascar; no introduced species was collected. Some seasonal variation was found in the number of trapped small mammals, but no marked difference was found in species richness. For flea species represented by sufficient samples, no parasite—host specificity was found, and there is evidence for considerable lateral exchange in the local flea fauna between species of tenrecs and the two rodent families (endemic and introduced). The implications of these results are discussed with regards to small mammal species richness and community structure, as well as a possible mechanism for the maintenance of sylvatic cycles of bubonic plague in the montane forests of Madagascar.

© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.
Steven M. Goodman, H. Rico Randrenjarison Andriniaina, Voahangy Soarimalala, and Jean-Claude Beaucournu "The Fleas of Endemic and Introduced Small Mammals in Central Highland Forests of Madagascar: Faunistics, Species Diversity, and Absence of Host Specificity," Journal of Medical Entomology 52(5), 1135-1143, (1 September 2015). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjv113
Received: 17 March 2015; Accepted: 14 July 2015; Published: 1 September 2015
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KEYWORDS
Ambohitantely
fleas
Seasonality
small mammal
species richness
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