NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXXIV. 1928 173 SIPHONAPTERA COLLECTED IN THE DOLOMITES. By dr. KARL JORDAN. (With 6 text-figures.) RIOR to mv visits to the Dolomites in 1922 and 1926 our collection P contained no specimens of Siphonaptera from that district. For this reason I took advantage of every opportunity that offered itself during these holidays to collect small mammals and thus to obtain at least some of the fleas which occur in South Tirol. The list here published is a very short one, but it gives nevertheless an idea of what is found on the usual kinds of small mammals one meets with in the mountains. All the species collected, or closely alUed forms, occur also in Switzerland. In the Southern ranges of the Dolomites and in the valleys one may expect to encounter Italian species. Mice and shrews were not very plentiful in the places at which we stayed long enough to make trapping feasible, and on the meadows above the tree-line only one mouse was common : Microtus incerlus. The nests of this species are not difficult to dig out, but usually they are disappointing, as they generally yield only the common Ceratophyllus penicilliger. At Cortina d'Ampezzo I trapped a number of moles, but the weather was so rainy that there was nothing on them when I inspected the trajjs. Evotomys nageri is a woodland species, being fairly common in the wood on the eastern side of Lake Misurma, and Microtus nivalis occurs high up in rocky places where it is not too dry and in alpine huts. 1. Ceratophyllus penicilliger Grube (1852). Common at higher elevations ; its normal host in the Dolomites evidently is Microtus incertus. Below Fedaja Pass, 1,900 m., and Schlern, 2400 m., vi.vii. 1922, in nests of Microtus incertus. Above Campo di Sotto, Cortina, 1,200 m., vi.l926, on Evotomys nageri. Below Croda da Lago, vii. 1926, 1,700 m., in nest of Microtus incertus. Misurina, 1,750 m., vii. 1926, off Microtus agrestis. Monte Piano, 2,300 m., and Platzwiese, 1,950 m., vii. 1926, in nests of M. incertus. Below Drei Zinnen Hiitte, 2,350 m., vii. 1926, off Microtus nivalis. 2. Ceratophyllus gallinulae gallinulae Dale (1878). I (J from : Faloria Alp, above Cortma, 1,300 m., vi. 1926, in nest of Emberiza citrinella. 3. Ceratophyllus gallinae Schrank (1803). A series bred in viii. 1922 from nest of Parus alpestris found in vi. in the wood on the east side of the Sellajoch, approximately at 1,800 m. This flea is a Pala^arctio species occurring on various birds, being particularly plentiful in the nest of Parus ; the domestic fowl I consider to be a secondary' host. It is now common in the Eastern States of North America, but in the West the fowl has picked up another flea : C. niger Fox (1908).
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