Data from: Were bed bugs the first urban pest insect? Genome-wide patterns of bed bug demography mirror global human expansion

There are calls for research into the historical evolutionary
relationships between humans and their commensals, as it would greatly
inform models that predict the spread of pests and diseases under urban
population expansion. The earliest civilizations emerged ~10,000 years ago
and created conditions ideal for the establishment and spread of commensal
urban pests. Commensal relations between humans and pests likely emerged
with these early civilizations; however, for most species (e.g., German
cockroach and black rat) these relationships are unlikely to have formed
prior to 5,000 years ago. Following comparative whole genome analysis of
bed bugs, Cimex lectularius, belonging to two genetically distinct
lineages, one associated with bats and the other with humans, coupled with
demographic modelling, our findings suggest that while their association
with humans dates back potentially hundreds of thousands of years, a
dramatic change in the effective population size of the human-associated
lineage occurred ~13,000 years ago; a pattern not found in the
bat-associated lineage. The timing and magnitude of the demographic
patterns provide compelling evidence that the human-associated lineage
closely tracked the demographic history of modern humans and their
movement into the first cities. As such, bed bugs may represent the first
true urban pest insect species.