Mating and Parental Investment of Cat Fleas, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouche) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae)
| Autor: | Meng-Hao Hsu, 徐孟豪 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 89 This article is the first documentation on the off-host mating of cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouche). A blood meal was necessary for a male cat flea to display the mating attempts to an unfed or fed female. More mating pairs resulted when both sexes were fed. Copulation occurs when fed fleas were placed on the surfaces with temperatures from 34℃ to 42℃. When mating started, the male grasped the female by his antennae, claws and claspers. Male’s antennae retrieved immediately after genitalia linkage, whereas grasps of male’s claws and claspers lasted to the end of mating. The thin penis rod of the male flea reached the spermathecal duct. A groove was found on the terminal portion of the thin rod, and the tip of the thin rod is like an extended cobra’s hood. These structures on the thin penis rod may remove sperm of the rival males from the spermatheca during copulation. After the mating pair separated, the male displayed a series of postmating behaviors. The duration of first mating averaged 63.1 minutes. However, length of mating interval terminated by the male was significantly longer than that terminated by the female. Multiple mating of female cat fleas was confirmed in this study, and its effects on fecundity and fertility were investigated as well. Multiple-mated females displayed significantly higher fecundity and fertility than single-mated females, suggesting that multiple mating by females is an advantageous strategy for cat fleas. High ratio of impotent mating suggested that cryptic female choice might be involved during copulation. Flea feces alone were not of sufficient food to allow >13.3% of larvae to develop to adults. Consumption of the female flea feces + nonviable flea eggs diet by larvae resulted in 90% adult emergence. Multiple-mated females laid only 45.7% viable eggs. Thus, nonviable eggs may provide supplementary nutrition deficient in flea feces, and prevent viable egg cannibalism by conspecific larvae. The daily fecal production of a virgin female cat flea was significantly more than that of a virgin male. Therefore, female cat fleas invested more energy for fecal production than did males. Feces and nonviable egg production by females suggested that a unique mechanism of parental investment displayed by cat fleas. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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