''Pulex'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
flea
Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...
s. It comprises seven
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
. One is the
human flea (''P. irritans''), and five of the others are confined to the
Nearctic and
Neotropical realm
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...
s.
Species
''
Encyclopedia of Life'' lists seven species:
*''
Pulex alvarezi''
Barrera, 1955
*''
Pulex echidnophagoides''
(Wagner, 1933)
*''
Pulex irritans''
Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
, 1758
*''
Pulex larimerius''
Lewis et Grimaldi, 1997
*''
Pulex porcinus''
Jordan et Rothschild, 1923
*''
Pulex simulans''
Baker, 1895
*''
Pulex sinoculus''
Traub, 1950
References
Siphonaptera genera
Pulicidae
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
{{Flea-stub