This species is fairly abundant in its range, and is not believed to be in need of conservation.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
Fleas have holometabolous metamorphosis (larval, pupal, and adult stages).
Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis
Oropsylla montana is one of the North American vectors for the pathogen Yersinia pestis, the plague bacillus. Other flea species can transmit the disease as well. Plague is mainly a disease of rodents, but humans may also become infected through a bite from an infected flea. Oropsylla montana is a vector for the spread of campestral plague ("plague in the countryside," as opposed to plague in cities) in the western United States. D. montanus has been shown to be only a moderately effective vector, which is not very likely to transmit the bacteria even if it bites a human.
Many people are unaware that bubonic plague still exists in the United States, but every year a few Americans become infected with the bacteria, which now can be treated with antibiotic drugs. Y. pestis infections are more common in particular regions of the world, such as certain parts of the western U.S., where the right combinations of climate, rodents, and fleas allow the disease to persist in wild rodent populations. While this disease does not currently pose a major threat to North American populations, it remains present, and public health agencies in parts of the continent where it exists do monitor it to prevent epidemics.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (bites or stings, carries human disease)
These fleas are ectoparasites on their hosts, feeding on blood. They sometimes transfer diseases to their hosts as well.
Ecosystem Impact: parasite
Species Used as Host:
Oropsylla montana is a parasite that feeds mainly on the blood from ground squirrels in the genus Spermophilus (Hubbard, 1968). Some specific examples of ground squirrels carrying O. montana are the California ground squirrel, Spermophilus beecheyi (Lang, 1996) and S. variegatus (Traub et al., 1983). Oropsylla montana has a proventriculus that facilitates the break down of the rodent blood meal injested by the flea. If the flea is infected by the plague-causing bacteria, Yersinia pestis, the bacteria will multiply and block the proventriculus. When the flea tries to feed, the host blood can not pass through the proventriculus and a blood and bacteria mixture go back into the host causing the host to become infected with the plague bacteria. Even though fleas can survive long periods of time without food, they will eventually die from starvation because the flea can no longer feed (Roberts & Janovy 2000).
Primary Diet: carnivore (Sanguivore )
Oropsylla montana can be found in North America, west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Mexico (Hubbard, 1968; Lawson, 1982; Pan American Health Organization, 1965). More specifically, it can be found in the Pacific Coastal and Rocky Mountain region along with Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and also south to Michoacan and Edo. de Mexico, Mexico (Traub, 1983).
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Oropsylla montana usually lives in the nests of ground squirrels located in a non-urban setting (Young, 1982) and is rarely found feeding on other rodents (Hubbard 1968). Nests inhabited by fleas may include twigs and leaves or even cotton or upholstery stuffing (Beard, 1992).
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; chaparral ; forest ; scrub forest ; mountains
This is a dark brown flea. Adults are medium-sized compared to most fleas. This species has particularly long palps (Ebeling, 2002).
Male and female O. montana are sexually dimorphic with males having a rounded clasper that is pushed ventrally. There are two long, strong bristles and four weak bristles near the finger and clasper. The finger of O. montana forms a curved blade-like shape, which has 11 bristles. In females, the spermatheca has a bit of a bulging body and a crooked tail (Hubbard, 1968). The spermatheca also shows a ventral contriction between the bulga and hilla. The anal stylet normally has one long ventral seta and no dorsal seta. In males, sternum VIII is without setae (Traub et al., 1983).
Eggs are large (around 0.5 mm). Larvae are white, legless, eyeless and are sensitive to humidity. Pupae spin silk cocoons.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger
