Figure 4

Ingestion of canine blood by individual male and female fleas. Mixed populations of male and female fleas were removed from a dog after 15 minutes. DNA was extracted from individual fleas, HMBS copies per flea were determined, and an HMBS background of 31.5 copies per flea was subtracted. Solid circles indicate male fleas, and open circles female fleas. Bars indicate the logarithmic mean of HMBS copies per group (n = 5). The number of HMBS copies in male (19.8) and female (31.2) fleas do not differ significantly (P = 0.53, Mann-Whitney U-test).