Badger flea Badger flea The badger flea ("Paraceras melis") is an external parasite of the European badger ("Meles meles"). It has also been found on the fox ("Vulpes vulpes"), the dog ("Canis familiaris"), the cat ("Felis catus"), the European polecat ("Mustela putorius"), the mole ("Talpa europaea") and the fallow deer ("Dama dama"). The badger flea, like other fleas, is a small, dark brown wingless insect with a tough, chitinous cuticle. Its body is flattened laterally and it has mouthparts designed for sucking the blood of a badger. Like other fleas, the badger flea has a life cycle consisting of an egg, a
River Meles until recently. This stream was alternatively called "Kemer Brook" ("Kemer Çayı") or, especially in western sources, as the "Caravan Bridge Brook", by the name of a historic bridge, also celebrated in literature, which checked the entry into the city of İzmir throughout the 19th century. The flow of this stream varies from a full rush of water in winter to a trickle, even a dry bed, in summer. In the light of descriptions by Aristides and other accounts dating from the Roman imperial age, this stream seems, in fact, to be the weakest candidate for association with Homer's Meles. Roman-era