Cat Flea

• It jumps more than a hundred times its own length thanks to a block of resilin, an elastic protein that stores energy like a spring and releases it all at once.
• Only a tiny fraction of the population is on the animal: the eggs, larvae and pupae build up in carpets, beds and cracks in the floor, which is why treating the pet alone never clears an infestation.
• It transmits the tapeworm Dipylidium caninum and the bacterium that causes cat scratch disease.
• It is the commonest flea in the world on dogs and cats, and also the one that most often bites people.
• The adult needs a blood meal every hour, so once it finds a host it does not leave it.
• The eggs are not sticky: they fall out of the coat like grains of salt, so the real nest is the carpet or the animal's bed, not the animal.
• The pupa can hold on for months inside its cocoon and emerges only on a specific cue: warmth, physical pressure or carbon dioxide — in other words, a host arriving.
• It transmits Bartonella henselae, the bacterium of cat scratch disease, and Rickettsia felis.

Habitat & environment

The coats of cats, dogs and other mammals, and the carpets and textiles of the home

Gestation / incubation

The full cycle from egg to adult takes between 30 and 75 days

Litter / clutch size

Up to 50 eggs a day

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenocephalides_felis