文章基本信息

标题：Bed bugs: The move to humans as hosts
本地全文：下载
作者：Benoit Talbot ; Nusha Keyghobadi ; Brock Fenton 等
期刊名称：FACETS
印刷版ISSN：2371-1671
电子版ISSN：2371-1671
出版年度：2019
卷号：4
期号：1
页码：105-110
DOI：10.1139/facets-2018-0038
语种：English
出版社：Canadian Science Publishing
摘要：Cimicid insects, bed bugs and their allies, include about 100 species of blood-feeding ectoparasites. Among them, a few have become widespread and abundant pests of humans. Cimicids vary in their degree of specialization to hosts. Whereas most species specialize on insectivorous birds or bats, the common bed bug can feed on a range of distantly related host species, such as bats, humans, and chickens. We suggest that association with humans and generalism in bed bugs led to fundamentally different living conditions that fostered rapid growth and expansion of their populations. We propose that the evolutionary and ecological success of common bed bugs reflected exploitation of large homeothermic hosts (humans) that sheltered in buildings. This was a departure from congeners whose hosts are much smaller and often heterothermic. We argue that interesting insights into the biology of pest species may be obtained using an integrated view of their ecology and evolution.