Mystery Fleas

So, since I last blogged, I took the little flea creatures that I found on the Arnolds’ cat up to the IVM to get some checks run on them. I was hoping that this would shed some light on their species and maybe give me a clue as to how the cat could have picked them up; I hate being caught out in my job by a question that I don’t know the answer to, so I was eager to find out what they were. These little bugs were one big pain!

And this was the point where everything started to get a little strange! It began when I met up with Buckley to go over her findings; she had none. She couldn’t find any species of flea, lice or tick that matched the bugs that I had found on the Arnolds’ cat, and she really knows her stuff when it comes to strange and rare animals. She agreed that they seemed to be a type of flea, but had never seen anything like them before! How incredible! Were they an entirely new species? And if they were, how on earth had that cat picked them up? I would have to get in touch with the Arnolds and see if they could give me any more information that would make some sense of all of this!

If this is a new species of flea its certainly an interesting one...Buckley observed their jet black shells and noticed that they seem to be even more hardy than regular fleas. Your average cat flea is pretty tough, and can’t be easily squashed or killed by scratching. However, these bugs seem to be much more resistant to damage, particularly from heat. God, just think, I could get credited with discovering a new species! I’ll ask the Arnolds for more info, and also check through the National Species Archives to see if I can find anything similar in there...there has to be an answer to these mystery bugs!

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