ungravid state. It is only there that the male will find her and copulate. Copulation of adults has not been observed in the wild. With the female reproductive organs pointing outward, the male will place his reproductive organs "in direction to the upright abdominal end of the female" to copulate. Having copulated for only a few seconds to 2 minutes, the male will then begin to search for another female. After copulation is complete, the male will die, although sometimes he will take a blood meal before doing so. Eggs will be expelled whether or not they have been fertilized. The chigoe flea eggs’ average length is 604 μm and the just hatched larvae, in their first instar, have an average length of 1,500 μm. At the second and last instar (T. penetrans is unique among the fleas in that it only has two, instead of three, instars.) the larvae decrease in size to 1,150 μm after growing to at least 2,900 μm. The development from instar 1 to instar 2 lasts less than one day. On the whole, Tunga penetrans does not do very well in terms of its Darwinian fitness. In a laboratory setting in which different mediums were provided for larval growth, the rate of survival from egg to adult in the best medium was 1.05%. Only 15% of the eggs were found to develop into larvae, and of those, only 14% formed a cocoon. Moreover, only half of the pupae reached the adult phase, resulting in gender disequilibrium. Although these results reflect a laboratory setting, the general lack of success for T. penetrans’s reproductive (opportunistic) R-strategy is surprising given the number of fleas that a single person can attract. The low survival rate suggests that a concentrated public health effort directed at any point in the flea’s life cycle is likely to deal a crippling blow to the overall population of the flea in the area. Diagnosis There are no diagnostic tests for tungiasis. This is most likely because the parasite is ectoparasitic with visible symptoms. Identification of the parasite through removal, and a patient’s traveling history, should suffice for diagnosis, though the latter is clearly more useful than the former. Localization of the lesion may be a useful diagnostic method for the clinician. A biopsy may be done, though again, it is not required for diagnosis. Prevention Due to the high number of hosts, eradication