Species investigation and sex ratio analysis of ectoparasitic fleas on small mammals in 19 Counties and Towns of Yunnan,China

Objective To study sex ratio of ectoparasitic fleas on the body surface of small mammals.Methods On the basis of field investigation(randomly sampling),small mammals were captured and ectoparasitic fleas were collected.Conventional taxonomic methods were used to investigate on sex ratios of small mammals and ectoparasitic fleas.Results 10 856 small mammals were captured in the field investigation and all the small mammals were identified as 47 species of 27 genera in 10 families.Totally 9 532 fleas were collected from the body surface of all small mammals and they were identified into 39 flea species of 22 genera in 5 families.Rattus flavipectus,Eothenomys miletus,Apodemus chevrieri and Rattus norvegicus are main dominant small mammal species.Ctenophthalmus quadratus,Xenopsylla cheopis and Leptopsylla segnis are main dominant flea species.The sex ratio of small mammal species is 1∶0.99 while that of flea species reaches 1∶0.81.Conclusion The female constituent ratio of small mammal species is equal to the male one.The female constituent ratio of the dominant flea species is slightly higher than male one.