Evolutionary history of stomach bot flies in the light of mitogenomics

Abstract

Stomach bot flies (Calyptratae: Oestridae, Gasterophilinae) are obligate endoparasitoids of Proboscidea (i.e. elephants), Rhinocerotidae (i.e. rhinos) and Equidae (i.e. horses and zebras, etc.), with their larvae developing in the digestive tract of hosts with very strong host specificity. They represent an extremely unusual diversity among dipteran, or even insect parasites in general, and therefore provide significant insights into the evolution of parasitism. The phylogeny of stomach bot flies was reconstructed based on extensive mitochondrial genomic data for Cobboldia, Gyrostigma and six of the eight known species of Gasterophilus. The phylogenetic tree, i.e. {Cobboldia, [Gyrostigma, (G..