Athena Review Image Archive ™
Flea (Ctenocephalides) drawn by Robert Hooke (1705)
Drawing of Flea (Ctenocephalides) (Hooke 1705).
This
image of a flea was drawn by Robert Hooke using his microscope in
the late 17th century. It probably the earliest detailed drawing of a
flea.
Fleas are agile, wingless insects with a body lengh of 1.5-3.3 mm. They have tube-like mouth-parts adapted to feeding on the blood of their hosts. Their legs are long, with the hind pair well adapted for jumping. Genetic and morphological evidence indicates that they are descendants of the Scorpion fly family Boreidae which are also flightless. Fleas are in the phylum Arthropoda, the class insecta, the subclass pterygota, the order Siphonaptera, the family Ceratophyllidae, and the genus Ctenocephalides.
This
figure, among many others published by Hooke, shows the
previously unknown level of detail opened up to the scientific
observation of organisms by the 17th century invention of the
microscope.
References:
Hooke, Robert 1705.
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