The Fauna of Fleas (Insecta, Siphonaptera) of the Republic of Karelia

The paper explores the specific features of the fauna of fleas (Siphonaptera) that inhabit Karelia, as part of a larger geographic region comprising Northwest Russia, as well as Northern Europe – Fennoscandia. Information was primarily derived from summary reports. Data from AIS PARHOST1 on the world flea fauna, which has been supplemented constantly since 2001 and is hosted by the Zoological Institute RAS, were involved in the analysis. As of now, 28 flea species of 13 genera have been reported from Karelia, amounting to around 35% of the regional fauna and 13% of the flea fauna of Russia. The species occurring in Northwest Russia but not reported from Karelia can be split into two major groups. The first group includes parasites of those hosts whose fleas remain unstudied. The second group comprises fleas missing from the Karelian fauna as a result of vicariation.