human flea

plural human fleas

1. A species of flea, Pulex irritans, with a variety of hosts, that is relatively prevalent among humans.

   1915, F. C. Bishopp, Fleas as Pests to Man and Animals, with Suggestions for Their Control, US Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 683, page 2, The human flea normally attacks man, but may be found on a number of other animals.

   2 more examples

   Furthermore it is important to state that the role of the human flea^([as a plague vector]) was always thought to be of secondary importance compared to that of the rat flea.

   2004, Dionysios Ch Stathakopoulos, Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire, page 128

   Very high population concentrations of human fleas could conceivably lead to plague transmission even if the individual human flea is an inefficient vector (Hirst, Conquest of Plague, 186-87).

   2007, Robert Sallares, “Ecology, Evolution, and Epidemiolgy of Plague”, in Lester K. Little, editor, Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750, page 272, footnote