Field Guide to Venomous and Medically Important Invertebrates ...

Figure 207. Illustration of a house fly (Musca domestica) showing four thoracic stripes.
Illustration: D. S. Kettle.
Figure 208. Illustration of the Australian bush fly (Musca vetustissima) showing two thoracic
stripes. Illustration: D. S. Kettle.
Figure 209. Bazaar fly (Musca sorbens) on the face of a refugee boy. Photo: Associated Press.
Figure 210. Unknown species of blow fly (Family Calliphoridae). Photo: Dexter Sear.
Figure 211. Unknown species of blow fly (Family Calliphoridae), Thailand. Photo: John
Moore.
Figure 212. Black blow fly (Phormia regina). Photo: Northern Kentucky University.
Fleas
Fleas (Order Siphonaptera) are wingless ectoparasites of warm-blooded vertebrate animals and
they occur worldwide. In addition to the annoying and painful bites they inflict with their
piercing-sucking mouthparts, some fleas can transmit serious disease to people including
bubonic plague, endemic typhus, and tularemia. They can also serve as an intermediate host of
certain parasitic tapeworms that can infest humans. Excessive bites may produce itching and
hive-like reactions. Scratching of bite wounds inflicted by fleas can produce secondary
infections that may require medical treatment. Bite wounds can be treated with corticosteroids
when necessary, and antibiotics may be used to manage secondary infections.
Although most fleas have a preferred host, many of them will take a blood meal from a wide
variety of animals and will readily bite man in the absence of their normal host. The cat flea
(Ctenocephalides felis) and the dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis), two common species with