Zoological Institute, St.Petersburg FLEAS HOME PAGE   Russian Version


Since 1979, for the more than 20 years the Laboratory of Parasitology, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, has been conducting studies on morphology, systematics, ecology and fauna of fleas. The Institute’s collection comprises 15,000 whole mounts in balsam and 3,500 items in alcohol. This collection now contains approximately 50,000 specimens of adults and larvae of 542 flea species of the fauna of Russia and neighbouring countries.
 
Dr. Valentin Vashchonok created a database on ecology of species of the fauna of the former Soviet Union and conducted studies of flea morphology and physiology. Dr. Sergei Medvedev, based on his own morphological studies, including analysis of 5,000 photographs obtained from scanning microscope, proposed and corroborated a new classification of the order, created an information analytical system on the world’s fauna of the order. For this and other information see pages of our website.