Flea

fle, a small wingless insect at home on animals. The body of the flea is flat, enabling it to glide between the hairs of its host, an operation further facilitated by a smooth, hard coat of scales. A flea is a great jumper, proverbially hard to put one's finger on, and hard to hold. Some curious mind has calculated that if a boy were able to leap as far and as rapidly, in proportion to his weight, as a flea, he could hop around the world before breakfast. Fleas drop their eggs to hatch and breed usually on the floor. Carpets are especially desirable from the point of view of a flea. The larvae are scavengers. They find vegetable and animal matter in the dust. Comstock states that "of the domestic animals only the dog, cat, rabbit, pigeons, and poultry have fleas." The household flea is different from that which infests dogs and cats; but the latter also attacks persons, and is, in fact, the common flea of America. The human flea, the flea of literature, is confined chiefly to Europe. It is known to entomologists by the very suggestive name of pulex irritans. The flea is not satisfied, like a mosquito, to bite one spot and bite once, but he skips about and renews his efforts until he creates the impression that the house is full of fleas.