siphonapteran

English

A siphonapteran (cat flea)

Etymology

Siphonaptera ‎ -an

Adjective

siphonapteran (not comparable)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the order Siphonaptera of fleas.

Noun

siphonapteran (plural siphonapterans)

1. Any species of the order Siphonaptera, a flea.
   • 1987, Barrie Gillean Molyneux Jamieson, The Ultrastructure and Phylogeny of Insect Spermatozoa, page 206:

     Absence of peripheral singlets, though with varying numbers of central singlets, is seen not only in mecopterans and siphonapterans but also in mycetophilid dipterans, and trichopterans.

   • 1998, Drion G. Boucias, Jacquelyn C. Pendland, Principles of Insect Pathology, page 396:

     Members of the genus Blastocrithidia are common pathogens of dipterans, hemipterans, and siphonapterans.

   • 2006, Robert Wynn Jones, Applied Palaeontology, page 174:

     The last remaining group, the siphonapterans or fleas, appeared in the Cenozoic, coincident with the radiation of the mammals that they parasitise.