Witt L H, Linardi P M, Meckes O, Schwalfenberg S, Ribeiro R A, Feldmeier H, Heukelbach J
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology of Infection, Institute for Infection Medicine, Charité Medical School, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
Med Vet Entomol. 2004 Dec;18(4):439-41. doi: 10.1111/j.0269-283X.2004.00533.x.
The jigger Tunga penetrans (Linnaeus, 1758: type-species of the family Tungidae) is the smallest known species of flea (Siphonaptera), causing serious ectoparasitosis of humans and domestic animals. The adult female Tunga lodges in the epidermis of the mammalian host, grows by neosomy, becomes gravid and expels eggs. Relatively little is known about the free-living male Tunga adults. Among impoverished communities of Fortaleza in north-east Brazil, we observed T. penetrans males as well as females penetrating the skin of human hosts. After penetrating the epidermis for a few hours, evidently for capillary feeding from the dermis, males withdrew their mouthparts and crawled away, whereas the females remained completely embedded, hypertrophying to become gravid, eventually dying in situ after oviposition. Caged rats were placed on the sandy soil and examined periodically for Tunga infestation. On five rats we obtained 140 females embedded and we detected 75 males biting, with rat erythrocytes observed in the proventriculus and midgut of all five males dissected and examined microscopically. This confirms that T. penetrans males are hamatophagous ectoparasites of mammals.
穿皮潜蚤（Tunga penetrans，林奈，1758年：潜蚤科的模式种）是已知最小的跳蚤物种（蚤目），可导致人类和家畜严重的体外寄生虫病。成年雌性穿皮潜蚤寄居于哺乳动物宿主的表皮，通过新体生长，受孕后产卵。对于自由生活的成年雄性穿皮潜蚤，人们了解相对较少。在巴西东北部福塔雷萨的贫困社区，我们观察到穿皮潜蚤的雄性和雌性都会钻入人类宿主的皮肤。雄性在钻入表皮数小时后，显然是为了从真皮进行毛细血管取食，随后收回口器并爬走，而雌性则完全埋入皮肤，肥大受孕，最终在产卵后死于原位。将笼养大鼠放置在沙质土壤上，并定期检查是否感染穿皮潜蚤。在五只大鼠身上，我们发现有140只雌性埋入皮肤，并且检测到75只雄性在叮咬，在解剖并显微镜检查的所有五只雄性的前胃和中肠中均观察到大鼠红细胞。这证实了穿皮潜蚤雄性是哺乳动物的吸血性体外寄生虫。
