An international team of scientists from four continents: Europe, Asia, North and South America with Bulgarian participation published the results of a study of dozens of bedbug species on 16 May 2019. Dr. Nikolay Simov from the National Museum of Natural History at BAS is the only Bulgarian invited scientist in a team from 14 scientific institutions in 10 countries (Argentina, Bulgaria, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, USA, the Czech Republic and Chile).
Scientists united their expertise and efforts in the study of different DNA sequences and presented the result in an article for the prestigious scientific journal CURRENT BIOLOGY. The team’s research leads to the conclusion that ordinary and tropical bed bugs are much older than humans. As a result of these studies, the complex phylogenetic relationships in the family of bed bugs and their relationship with humans as their hosts were established.
The study also reveals that new species of bed bugs recognize people as a host every half a million years. When this happens, the bugs take advantage of their new hosts (in this case the people) without giving up the old ones.
