CreatureData

Rat flea

Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild, 1903)

Status not recordedinsects

The rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) is a species in the family Pulicidae, order Siphonaptera.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the rat flea

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the rat flea live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the rat flea as introduced in 7 countries.

  1. Canary Islands
  2. France
  3. Ireland
  4. Japan
  5. Poland
  6. South Africa
  7. United States

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the rat flea endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the rat flea classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderSiphonaptera
  5. familyPulicidae
  6. genusXenopsylla
  7. SpeciesXenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild, 1903)

Synonyms Alaopsylla murinus

Other names and names in other languages (22)
  • Oriental rat fleaEnglish
  • Plague fleaEnglish
  • Puça de la rata orientalCatalan
  • blecha morováCzech
  • RattenflohGerman
  • PulgaSpanish
  • Puce du ratFrench
  • keleti patkánybolhaHungarian
  • Pulce del ratto orientaleItalian
  • インドノミJapanese
  • 열대쥐벼룩Korean
  • Pchła szczurzaPolish
  • Южная крысиная блохаRussian
  • blcha morováSlovak
  • pestloppaSwedish
  • หมัดหนูเมืองร้อนThai
  • 印度鼠蚤Chinese
  • puce orientale du ratFrench
  • インドネズミノミJapanese
  • ケオプスネズミノミJapanese
  • ネズミノミJapanese
  • ペストノミJapanese

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the rat flea

Other species in the same genus Xenopsylla.

A rat flea

Xenopsylla brasiliensis

PulicidaeNo free photo yet

CompareRat flea vs A rat fleaRat flea vs Christmas island fleaRat flea vs Botswana bubonic plague fleaRat flea vs South African cliff-swallow flea

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the rat flea an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the rat flea as introduced in 7 countries, including Canary Islands, France, Ireland, Japan and Poland, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

What kind of animal is the rat flea?

The rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) belongs to the family Pulicidae in the order Siphonaptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/rat-flea

MLA

“Rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/rat-flea.

BibTeX
@misc{rat_flea_2026,
  title = {Rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/rat-flea},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}