Cimex lectularius bat and human lineage comparison

The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is a globally distributed human ectoparasite pest. In Europe, this species has two lineages, one that feeds on humans and one that feeds on bats. In nature, they do not generally interbreed even with bats roosting in attics, but are still considered the same species. Previous studies estimated that the host switch from bats to hominins occured over 250 k years ago. However, little is known about the population demographic between these two lineages. We present genome-resequencing data of bat and human lineage bed bugs to identify genome-wide patterns of demography.