Dr. Éva Murai szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 2. 1984 (Budapest, 1984)

Dudich, A.: Fleas (Insecta: Siphonaptera) from small mammals in the Čergov Mountains (Western Carpathians, Czechoslovakia)

Fleas (Insecta: Siphonaptera) from small mammals in the Cergov Mountains (Western Carpathians, Czechoslovakia) By A. DUDICH {Received November 28, 1983) The paper ie dedicated to the memory of Tibor WEISZ (1914—1983). ABSTRACT. A total of 419 specimens of insectivores and rodents of 11 species were captured and examined for parasites in the course of the years 1974-1975 and 1980-1982. From their bodies 926 specimens of fleas of 19 species were collected, including some material from pitfall traps. The following most numerous and dominant flea species represented 85. 3% of the whole material: Ctenophthal mus agyrtes kleinschmidtianus (37.6%), Amalaraeus penicilliger kratochvili (21.0%), Palaeopsylla soricis starki (8.3%), Amalaraeus arvicolae (7. 1%), Cte nophthalmus uncinatus (4.9%), Megabothris turbidus (5.2%), Literature data on fleas are available from neighbouring parts of the Polish Carpathians, as published by HAITLINGER (1974, 1978). The area under study is of zoogeographical importance as it lies on the east border of the Western Carpathian subsystem. This opinion was confirmed by the species composition of the flea fauna of small mammals. The first report on the flea fauna of small mammals in Cergov Mts is given in this paper. MATERIAL AND METHOD A total of 419 insectivores and rodents were captured by snap traps at the following localities and dates: Circ 14 July, 1974; Ruská Vol'a 9 Aug. , 1974; Lenartov 29 Jan., 1975 and 10-12 Nov. , 1981; Hertník 26-28 Aug., 1980; Livov 20-23 April, 1982. Some material of fleas from pitfall traps (Circ-Mincol, 1975) were obtained through the kindness of Dr. J. KLEINERT. The localities are situated in the forest zone between 550 and 1000 m above sea-level. The forests belong to the beech vegetation zone with autochtonous occurrence of fir-trees (Abies alba). Detailed locality and habitat descriptions are given by MÉSZÁROS & STOLLMANN (1984). The following host species were examined (in parenthesis number of hosts examined/ number of hosts infested): Sorex araneus Linnaeus (56/21); S. minutus Linnaeus (11/0); S. alpinus Schinz (7/5); Neomys fodiens (Pennant) (9/3); N. anomalus Cabrera (l/l); Apodemus flavicollis (Melchior) (40/15); A. agrárius (Pallas) (9/3); Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber) * Report No. 16 from the project "Complex parasitological studies on small mammal populations", a co-operation between the Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, and the Institute of Experimental Biology and Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Research Station Stare Hory.