Museum shows collection of Mexican dressed fleas

A collection of tiny fleas dressed as people is among the exhibits on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The tradition of dressing fleas began in Mexican convents, where nuns would produce the scenes to sell to tourists.

The museum has five of the matchbox scenes, which are believed to have been gifted to the to them in the 1910s by George H F Nuttall, after he received them as a gift from his sister.

The fleas were initially thought of as a Victorian novelty, so were not formally recorded or displayed.

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