Abstract
Two spermathecæ (or receptacula semmis) in female fleas which normally possess only one have been noted on various occasions1. In such abnormal specimens or monstrosities one spermatheca is usually smaller than the other. The best published description of this condition in the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis Roths. (overlooked by M. I. D. Sharma and G. C. Joshi2), is that by Smit3, who figures a specimen in which both spermathecæ and their ducts are fully developed and of almost equal size. A very much rarer abnormality is recorded by Stark4,5, who discovered a specimen of Hystrichopsylla linsdalei Holland (which normally has two spermathecæ) with three spermathecæ.
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References
Smit, F. G. A. M., Tijdschr. Ent., 90, 35 (1947).
Sharma, M. I. D., and Joshi, G. C., Nature, 191, 727 (1961).
Smit, F. G. A. M., Ent. Bericht., 12, 436 (1949).
Stark, H. E., Pan-Pacific Entomol., 29, 135 (1953).
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Jordan, K., Ectoparasites, 1, 127 (1921).
Smit, F. G. A. M., Trans. Roy. Entomol. Soc., 107, 324 (1955).
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ROTHSCHILD, M. Double and Single Spermathecæ in Fleas (Siphonaptera). Nature 191, 1322 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/1911322a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1911322a0
