The formerly monotypic genus Mioctenopsylla Rothschild, 1922, was erected to accommodate an unusual ceratophyllid flea collected from nests of the kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla ssp., during the Norwegian Expedition to Novaya Zemlya in 1921. Although it could be assigned to Jordan's “Group C” of Ceratophyllus s. lat., this species, described as M. arctica Rothschild, differed in many remarkable ways from all other species and genera of the group. The spines of the pronatal ctenidium, large and deeply pigmented in all other Ceratophyllidae, are reduced in Mioctenopsylla to short, pale structures that could easily be overlooked (Fig. 7). Other characters of the genus not found elsewhere in the Ceratophyllidae include denticulate dorsal margins to the abdominal terga, numerous minute punctuations on the sterna, and narrow mid- and hind-coxae, as well as distinctive sexual features.