The Life Cycle of the Xenopsylla Cheopis

Xenopsylla cheopis, commonly called the Oriental rat flea, is the leading cause of plague transmission today in Asia, South America and Africa, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 1300s the Xenopsylla cheopis transmitted the bubonic plague which resulted in what is known today as the Black Death. Today, in Australia the flea transmits Murine typhus.

  1. Life

    • The life cycle of the Xenopsylla cheopis ranges from a few weeks to a few months. The flea's lifespan is largely dependent upon food supply and temperatures. The flea prefers living on and eating the blood supply of rats, but it will easily transfer its home to another animal host or even a human.

    Eggs

    • The female flea lays her eggs either on her animal host, in the animal's bedding or the eggs simply fall to the ground as the animal moves about. The eggs take from one to 14 days before they hatch out into tiny flea larva. The average incubation time span is normally five days, according to the Chemical Biological Warfare Information website.

    Larva Stage

    • The larvae feed predominantly on organic material such as rat droppings and skin cells that it finds in its hatch location. The larvae avoid light and enjoy humidity. They appear as tiny white worms that contain no body parts except a mouth. Over the course of 200 days the larvae eat and grow. Once the larva is fully grown it spins a silken web around its body to pupate into an adult flea. The process from larva to flea takes anywhere from one week to six months.

    Adult Flea

    • The larva has the ability to delay metamorphosis within its cocoon if it detects that a suitable rat host is not available. Once it feels secure that a host animal is readily available, the larva emerges from the cocoon as an adult flea that feeds solely upon blood and has the capability of mating to produce its own offspring.

    Adult Life

    • Both the male and female flea will consume several blood meals per day by sucking the blood from their host. The female will mate once per day and produce up to 50 eggs each day. The flea will live for up to one year mating and feeding before death occurs. If the host dies during the flea's lifespan then the flea will simply hop onto another host.

    Transmission

    • During the adult flea's life cycle it has the capability of transmitting diseases to its host when feeding. Every time the flea attaches to the host with its mouth to suck blood, it regurgitates a little of the old blood into the feeding hole. This helps to transmit any disease the flea is harboring. Typhus is normally transmitted when the flea's fecal matter comes into contact with open wounds or flea bite marks.