Pulicid

We do not question the corollaries of Jordan's postulate, namely that vermipsyllid fleas never had ctenidia whereas comb-less pulicids and hystrichopsyllids are the descendants of comb-bearing fleas (Holland 1959).

These introduced pulicid fleas are cosmopolitan, having also been introduced by human transport to all continents except Antarctica (Lewis 1995).

Two possible, not mutually exclusive, scenarios can be suggested. In the first, ancestors of the dipodine genus Jaculus dispersed to Africa (Black & Krishtalka, 1986) where they were presumably colonized by pulicids. In the second scenario, pulicids colonized jerboas switching from Gerbillinae which originated in Africa and dispersed to Asia no later than in the Miocene (Wessels, 1998).