A NEW SPECIES OF FLEA (SIPHONAPTERA: CTENOPHTHALMIDAE) PARASITIZING VOLES AT HIGH ELEVATIONS IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS OF TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA

Both sexes of Catallagia appalachiensis n. sp. are described from high elevation spruce-fir forests in Sevier County, Tennessee and adjoining Swain County, North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The type host of the new flea is the southern red-backed vole, Myodes gapperi (Vigors) (25 flea specimens), although small numbers of specimens were also collected from a sympatric northern short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say) (2 fleas), a red squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben) (1 flea), and a North American deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus (Wagner) (1 flea). Infestation prevalences for these hosts are provided. The new species is compared morphologically with other known species of Catallagia, in particular with Catallagia borealis, the only other described congeneric flea in eastern North America. This is the first new species of flea to be described from the eastern United States since 1980.