Nycteribiidae

Phylogeny of Nycteribiidae bat flies

Bayesian inference based on mitochondrial sequences revealed that bat fly species parasitizing frugivorous ( Pteropodidae ) and insectivorous ( Vespertilionidae , Miniopteridae ) bats form two distinct well-supported monophyletic clades (posterior probability, pp = 1) ( Fig. 1). Flies parasitizing frugivorous bats and belonging to the subfamily Cyclopodiinae [ 28] are divided into two well-supported clades (pp = 1) comprised of the genera Cyclopodia and Eucampsipoda found on Eidolon dupreanum and Rousettus spp. , respectively. Cyclopodia horsfieldi parasitizing Pteropus hypomelanus from Malaysia falls within the first clade. Molecular data presented herein from flies collected on insectivorous bats from Madagascar and the Comoros Archipelago and belonging to the subfamily Nycteribiinae [ 29] also yielded two well-supported monophyletic clades composed of Nycteribia spp. and Penicillidia spp. , parasitizing Miniopterus spp. , as well as Myotis goudoti . Both Nycteribia spp. and Penicillidia spp. occurred on a variety of different host species and in certain cases, a single putative fly species was identified from several different bat species ( Table 1 View Table 1 ). In addition, a separate and well-supported cluster of bat flies parasitizing Malagasy vespertilionids, specifically Scotophilus robustus , S. marovaza , and Pipistrellus cf. hesperidus (denoted as Basilia sp. 1 – 3 in Fig. 1) formed an independent, monophyletic group excluding B. rybini and B. truncata from Japan. In this phylogeny, the genus Basilia is paraphyletic and contains previously unrecognized diversity. Based on the Kimura 2-parameter model (K2P, Table 2 View Table 2 ), the average genetic distance between nycteribiid species from the Malagasy Region ranged from 3.0 to 20.4%. Bat flies infecting S. robustus and S. marovaza formed a monophyletic clade composed of two groups separated by a genetic distance of 12.1%, supporting the existence of two distinct species. Similarly, flies parasitizing Pipistrellus cf. hesperidus were notably divergent (12.1 to 13.5%) from those found on Scotophilus spp.