Tunga penetrans

104 kb	Female. Tunga penetrans is known as the chigger, jigger, chigoe, bicho do pé or sand flea. The head is angular, it has no comb of spines, and the thoracic segments are narrow at the top.The female feeds by burrowing into the skin of its host. The abdomen becomes enormously enlarged between the second and third segments so that the flea forms a round sac with the shape and size of a pea.
67 kb	The sand flea The impregnated female Tunga embeds itself in the skin under the toenails and fingernails of man - where the resultant sores may fill with pus and become infected -, in the interdigital space of goats, on the mammae and tail of pigs, the tails of rats and probably in more or less confined regions of skin of a very wide range of other hosts, including the dog.
	Tungiasis from a dog. Tunga penetrans may also pose significant problems in dogs but infestation tends to be sporadic,geographically isolated,or related to special environmental circumstances. The impregnated Tunga female attaches firmly to the dog,usual areas being the interdigital spaces,under the pads, and the scrotum. The presence of a number of adult T.penetrans in the the paws can be crippling, and the damage to the skin can facilitate the entry of other pathogens leading to secondary infection and ulceration.