An Historic Collection of Fleas (Siphonaptera) in the Macleay Museum, Sydney, Australia R. L. C. Pilgrim (Communicated by D. S. HORNING, Jr) PILGRIM, R. L. C. An historic collection of fleas (Siphonaptera) in the Macleay Museum, Sydney, Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 113 (1), 1992: 77-86. Specimens of 58 fleas, representing 12 genera, 15 species and subspecies, together with 2 larvae, obtained by collecting, purchase or exchange, are identified and listed ^according to current taxonomic practice. They had been collected in Australia, Cuba, Europe, South Africa, and South America. R. L. C. Pilgrim, Department of Zoology, University oj Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand; manuscript received 5 March 1991, accepted for publication 22 May 1991. Introduction The Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, has an insect collection of about 500 000 specimens (Horning, 1984: 172). Many of these specimens were collected during the early to mid 1800's, and so constitute irreplaceable and historically valuable records. The collection was virtually inaccessible from 1912 to 1982 but the appointment of a curator had made the material available for re-examination. The historic flea collection, of 58 adults and 2 larvae, was sent to me for preparation and identification. Much of the collection, as received, was in a superficially poor condition: most specimens were glued to card or paper, or to mica slips; some were entirely obscured by fungal hyphae and a great deal of accumulated dust; five adults were pinned. Preparation involved soaking the specimens from the card/paper/mica mounts and the shellac fortunately dissolved readily. Those that were pinned had been removed prior to receipt by me: they had been relaxed for 1-134 days in a thymol crystal/water relaxing chamber at 40°C, the lower end of the corroded pin scraped clean with forceps, and the flea then slid off the pin. The pins had been thrust through the mid-abdomen, consequently the genitalia and the diagnostically critical posterior segments were retained almost intact. Inevitably many setae were lost, as were some portions of legs and maxillae; nevertheless, surprisingly good results were obtained using a standard slide preparatory technique (Smit, 1957), such that the specimens presented few taxonomic problems attributable to the condition of the material. Some abdomens were badly broken open and occasionally spermathecae became exteriorized on the slide or lost. The original labels were kept and glued to the microscope slide (right side); where more than one species was present on the original labelled mount, a full replicate of the data has been placed in the corresponding position on the additional slide(s). Systematic s The species present in the collection are listed below. Higher taxonomy of the fleas follows Smit (1982); the subfamilies and tribes of Pygiopsyllidae are those of Mardon (1981) and the subgenera of Ceratophyllus those of Smit (1983). Nomenclature of the hosts follows Ride (1970) for Australian, and Hall and Kelson (1959) for North American and Cuban hosts. Entries are arranged as follows: number, for ease of reference; current name of flea species, with author and date; number of specimens of each sex; number of slides PROC. LINN. SOC. N.S.W., 113 (1), 1992
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