Classification of the flea families (Siphonaptera): II. Family Hystrichopsyllidae (Part 3)

Morphological characters and their diversity in the Afrotropical subfamilies Dinopsyllinae and Listropsyllinae, and the Holarctic subfamily Anomiopsyllinae are evaluated. Three centers had the major significance in the formation of the family Hystrichopsyllidae: the South American (extra-Caribbean), Afro-European, and North American and Asian ones. One more center may have been located in Australia but its fauna has become largely extinct or remains unknown. The origin of a number of tribes of the subfamilies Hystrichopsyllinae and Doratopsyllinae is associated with the South American center; the origin of subgenera of the subfamily Ctenophthalminae as well as the subfamilies Listropsyllinae and Dinopsyllinae, with the Afro-European center; and the origin of the subfamilies Neopsyllinae, Rhadinopsyllinae, Anomiopsyllinae, Stenoponiinae, and Liuopsyllinae, with the North American and Asian center. Distribution of the subfamilies Doratopsyllinae and Hystrichopsyllinae sheds light on the initial stages of formation of the family Hystrichopsyllidae.