It has been hypothesized that memory-demanding ecological conditions might result in enhanced memory and an enlarged hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory processing, either via extensive memory experience or through evolutionary changes. Avian migration appears to represent one of such memory-demanding ecological conditions. We compared two subspecies of the white-crowned sparro...

Sir,?In the course of a rat-flea survey of a few towns in the Travancore State, I happened to note an unusually high incidence of Xenopsylla braziliensis Baker, particularly in one locality, viz, Athirampuzha, a typical rural inland conservancy town, situated at an elevation of about 100 feet above sea-level, enjoying a fairly warm climate. The area surveyed comprises chiefly the market, grain-...

Two hundred and seventy-three elephant shrews, consisting of 193 Elephantulus myurus, 67 Elephantulus edwardii and 13 animals belonging to other species, were examined for ixodid ticks at 18 localities in South Africa and Namibia. The immature stages of Ixodes rubicundus, Rhipicentor nuttalli, Rhipicephalus warburtoni and a Rhipicephalus pravus-like tick were the most numerous of the 18 tick sp...

The extensive use of insecticides in public health and agriculture sectors is the main reason for development of resistance in fleas associated in domestic rodents. The present work was planned to investigate the insecticidal efficacy of Lambda-cyhalothrin, Chlorpyrifos and Fenitrothion against rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) infesting rodent species in Giza Governorate, Egypt. The lethal concent...

We studied the effect of air temperature and RH on the survival time of adult Xenopsylla conformis Wagner, 1903 and Xenopsylla ramesis Rothschild, 1904 fleas during starvation to explain the paratopic habitat distribution of these species on opposite ends of a precipitation and temperature gradient in the Negev Highlands, Israel. We hypothesized that the pattern of distribution of the two flea ...

During February 2004 and September 2005, Xenopsylla cheopis were collected from small mammal hosts during rodent-bone disease surveys in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia. During 4 trap nights in Jakarta, 4 rodent species (Rattus exulans, Rattus norvegicus, Rattus tanezumi and Mus musculus) and one shrew species (Suncus murinus) were collected. Rattus tanezumi had the highest X. cheopis load (128 ...

Reported are the results of studies over the period 1989-94 on host-flea complexes in small mammals and their flea ectoparasites in and around a number of human settlements in Viet Nam in which human cases of plague had been found. Collections were also made in savanna and tropical forest areas within a 10-km radius of the settlements. The greatest numbers of small mammals, for the most part Ra...

The geographical and host distributions of Xenopsylla fleas parasitizing murid rodents on the Canary Islands have been reported. Three Xenopsylla species, X. cheopis, X. brasiliensis and X. guancha, have been detected on two rodents species, Mus musculus and Rattus rattus. X. guancha has been the most prevalent species detected, specifically on M. musculus, the most abundant rodent, but it has ...