Cooperation:
Steffen Roth (University Museum Bergen, Norway)
Klaus Reinhardt (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany)
Jitka Vilímová (Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, CZ)
Tomáš Bartonička (Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, CZ)
Nikolay Simov (National Museum of Natural History Sofia, Bulgaria)
Milan Paunovic (Natural History Museum, Belgrade, Serbia)
And many more bat and bird specialists and other colleagues…
Aims:
Study of the phylogeny of the family Cimicidae, with respect to evolution of specific traits, e.g. the morphology of paragenitalia, generalist vs. specialist host choice, or potential co-evolution with bed bug hosts.
Methods:
Collecting bed bug species in bat roosts and bird nests, nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequencing, molecular dating using fossil insects.
Results:
Roth et al. 2019 Current Biology
Balvín et al. 2015 Systematic Entomology
Balvín & Bartonička 2014 Vespertilio
Balvín et al. 2014 Folia Zoologica