Notes on fleas collected from bird-nests

Abstract

In this paper, the authors reported of the fleas collected from bird-nests. Four nests of three species of ground-nesting birds were examined. These host-birds were Emberiza fucata, Saxicola torqata and Emberiza yessoensis and their nests were collected soon after the youngs had left from them at Kirigamine grassland plateau (1600m.), Nagano Prefecture. Many fleas emerged from each nest and they all were identified with Ceratophyllus garei Rothschild, 1902, a common flea on the ground-nesting birds in the northern hemisphere. Some male individuals had variations on the apical membranous processes of the sternum VIII as shown in Figure 1.