Obsevations on the behaviour of the european rabbit flea, Spilopsullus cuniculi (Dale), ona natural population of wild rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in Australia

Abstract

The behaviour of S, cuniculi was studied on a natural rabbit population present on an island in Lake Bathurst, N.S.W. Four individually marked groups of fleas and an unmarked control group, a total of 454 in all, were released onto five rabbits trapped at one location. Surveys of the rabbits and their fleas were carried out during the first, second, eighth, and fourteenth weeks after the fleas were released. Rabbit breeding before the fourteenth week resulted in an increase, due to breeding, in the number of unmarked fleas recovered at that time. During weeks one, two, and eight, 316 rabbits, equivalent to three times the estimated population size, were examined for fleas, and only 77 were recovered. Of these, 64 (88 %) were found on rabbits trapped within 25 yd of the point at which they were released. Nine rabbits resident in this area accounted for 52 of these 64 fleas, and there were frequent changes in the degree and composition of the infestations of these rabbits. Two rabbits upon which fleas had been released had lost 94 and 96 % of their fleas within 10 days. It is suggested that these results indicate that many fleas were living freely within the rabbit burrows in the immediate area in which they were released.