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

This paper explores the specific features of the fauna of fleas (Siphonaptera) of Karelia, as part of a larger geographic region comprising Northwestern Russia and Fennoscandia. Our analysis included information from the available summary reviews and data from the PARHOST1 information analysis system on the world flea fauna, hosted by the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and supplemented regularly since 2001. At present, 28 flea species of 13 genera have been recorded for Karelia, amounting to about 35% of the regional fauna and 13% of the flea fauna of Russia. The species occurring in Northwestern Russia but not found in Karelia can be divided into two major groups. The first group includes the parasites of those hosts whose fleas remain unstudied. The second group comprises the flea species that are absent in the Karelian fauna due to vicariation.