The head and the thorax have rows of bristles (called combs), and the abdomen consists of eight visible segments.

Fleas smell exhaled carbon dioxide from humans and animals and jump rapidly to the source to feed on the newly found host.

The flea is wingless so it can not fly, but it can jump long distances with the help of small, powerful legs.

Microscopic white eggs fall easily from the female to the ground or from the animal she lays on.

The flea remains a pupa from one week to six months changing in a process called metamorphosis.

The Oriental rat flea was collected in Shendi, Sudan by Charles Rothschild along with Karl Jordan and described in 1903.