Spinturnicid mites and bats cophylogeny: Comment on Bruyndonckx et al. (2009) 'Molecular cophylogenetic relationships between European bats and their ectoparasitic mites (Acari, Spinturnicidae)'.

Letter to the EditorInternational audienceRecently, Bruyndonckx et al. (2009) used phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial sequences of European Spinturnicidae parasitizing bats to assess the coevolutionary relationships between host and parasite lineages. Despite being a good investigation into bat ecology and exhibiting an indisputable competence in molecular data analysis, the paper reflects a lack of knowledge of the basic biology and ecology of Spinturnicidae. This shortcoming arises from the fact that the authors do not appropriately review earlier important studies, so that they reach dubious conclusions. Here we comment on their findings and suggest references related to their hypotheses