PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 102(3), 2000, pp. 613-624 A REVIEW OF THE FLEA GENERA HECTOPSYLLA FRAUENFELD AND RHYNCHOPSYLLUS HALLER (SIPHON APTERA: PULICIDAE) Michael W. Hastriter and Eustorgio Mendez (MWH) Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, 290 MLBM, P.O. Box 20200, Provo, Utah 84602-0200, U.S.A. (e-mail:
[email protected]); (EM) Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Apartado Postal 6991, Zona 5, Panama, Republica de Panama Abstract. — Rhynchopsyllus, a monotypic genus, is proposed as a new junior synonym of Hectopsylla. A key for the 12 species of Hectopsylla is provided with annotation of host preferences and geographical distribution of Hectopsylla pulex (Haller). Key Words: Hectopsylla, Rhynchopsyllus, Siphonaptera, Pulicidae, key Rhynchopsyllus pulex described by Hall-er (1880) has been a source of taxonomic confusion. Schreiter and Shannon (1927) and Traub and Gammons (1950) erected Maxilliopsylla lilloi and Rhynchopsyllus megastigmata, respectively, from females only. Tipton and Mendez (1966) subse-quently described the male of R. megastig-mata from Panama (in the presence of ac-companying females). Later Mendez (1977) reported associated males and females from Colombia to be the same as R. megastig-mata from Panama, but considered them conspecific with R. pulex. Jordan (1939) synonymized M. lilloi with R. pulex. Jordan and Rothschild (1906), Dalla Torre (1924), and Pinto (1930) each reported the species as Hectopsylla (based only on females). In addition, Anduze et al. (1947) and Cova Garcia and Taliaferro (1959) questioned the status of Rhynchopsyllus because of simi-larities with Hectopsylla. If one uses the characters described by Hopkins and Roths-child (1953), Panamanian and Colombian males reported by Tipton and Mendez (1966) and Mendez (1977) clearly belong to Hectopsylla. This paper provides obser-vations to support synonymizing the mono-typic genus Rhynchopsyllus with Hectop-sylla. Mammalian synonymies follow those of Wilson and Reeder (1993) and avian syn-onymies are those described in Peters (1934, 1940), Deignan et al. (1964) and Sibley and Monroe (1990). The deposito-ries of material examined for this study are annotated after host/locality data as: The Natural History Museum, London (BMNH), Field Museum of Natural Histo-ry, Chicago (FMNH), J.C. Beaucoumu Col-lection (JCB), Museum d'Histoire Naturel-le, Belgium (Md'HN), Michael W. Hastriter Collection (MWH), Robert E. Lewis Col-lection (REL), and National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (USNM). Genus Hectopsylla Frauenfeld Hectopsylla Frauenfeld 1860: 464. Type species (by monotypy): Hectopsylla psit-taci Frauenfeld. Rhynchopsyllus Haller 1880: 72. Type spe-cies (by monotypy): Rhynchopsyllus pu-lex Haller. New synonymy. Maxilliopsylla Schreiter and Shannon 1927: 6. Type species (by monotypy): Maxil-
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