Classification

Cat flea
Scientific name: Ctenocehalides felis
 Common name: Cat flea

Domain: Eukaryota
 Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Siphonaptera
Family: Pulicida
Genus: Ctenocephalides
Species: C. felis

 

Analysis of Classification

Picture found in public domain\ wikipedia.org

Ctenocehalides felis, cat fleas belong to Eukaryotes because they have membrane bounded organelles with the presence of nucleus.

Cat fleas are multi-cellular. The main characteristics that distinguish cat fleas into  Animalia from the other kingdom is that they are lack of cell wall and chloroplast. Also, Animalia organisms' body plan is fixed when they develop.  They are motile, which can move spontaneously and independently. In addition, they are heterophs who feed on other organisms.

 Organisms under phyla Arthropoda has segmented body with appendages covered by hard exoskeleton for body support and cat fleas are one of them.

Picture found on public domain\ wikipedia.org

Class  Insecta is the major group of Arthropoda. Cat fleas fall under this class as their body is composed of head, thorax and abdomen. 

Cat fleas is a small wingless insect. Therefore, they fall under the order Siphonaptera.

 

Phylogentic Tree

by Orca Kwong

Information from http://www.icb.usp.br/~marcelcp/Default.htm

The closest relatives and ancestors of cat fleas are shown in the graph above.

 

 

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