New study reveals the position of fleas on tree of life; here is all that you need to know

A new University of Bristol study, published in the journal Palaeoentomology, was focussed on the largest insect molecular dataset available. It was further analysed using new statistical methods, which included more sophisticated algorithms. The objective of the study was to test all the proposed hypotheses about the placement of fleas on the insect tree of life. However, it also expounded a few new relationships. 

A new relationship established 

As per the authors of the study, it was revealed that fleas are technically scorpionflies. This revelation completely turned down all the existing notions about flea’s existence. According to the study, the species evolved when they started feeding on the blood of vertebrates sometime between the Permian and Jurassic, which was somewhere in between 290 and 165 million years ago. The lead author of the study, Erik Tihelka from the  School of Earth Sciences said, “Of all the parasites in the animal kingdom, fleas hold a pre-eminent position. The Black Death, caused by a flea-transmitted bacterium, was the deadliest pandemic in the recorded history of mankind; it claimed the lives of possibly up to 200 million people in the 14th century”. She added, “Yet despite their medical significance, the placement of fleas on the tree of life represents one of the most persistent enigmas in the evolution of insects”. 

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It was also discovered that the closest relatives of fleas are the members of the scorpionfly family Nannochoristidae. This is a rare group which has only seven native species in the southern hemisphere. Also, adult nannochoristid scorpionflies have a peaceful existence feeding on nectar. 

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A PhD student at the University of Bristol who participated in the study, Mattia Giacomelli, said, “It seems that the elongate mouthparts that are specialized for nectar-feeding from flowers can become co-opted during the course evolution to enable sucking blood”. As per previous studies, a connection was established between fleas and scorpionflies. However, their exact relationship was never established. Chenyang Cai, associate professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGP) and a research fellow at the University of Bristol specialising on Mesozoic insects said, “The new results suggest that we may need to revise our entomology textbooks. Fleas no longer deserve the status of a separate insect order, but should actually be classified within the scorpionflies”.

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