after such transmission. The viruses HIV and hepatitis B can persist in C. lectularius for two weeks, but with no viral replication. The possibility of these and most other viruses being transmitted from C. lectularius to humans is considered extremely remote. Evolution A fossil bedbug, Quasicimex eilapinastes, was identified in 2008 from Late Cretaceous Burmese amber, aged 99 million years ago (mya). Molecular analysis suggests that bedbugs diversified before the existence of bats, their primary hosts, suggesting repeated colonisation of bats from an unknown host. Molecular analysis of five mitochondrial and nuclear genes shows that the Cimicidae, a group of over 100 species, form a clade. The Primicimicinae is sister to the clade containing all other extant species. The analysis, dated using fossils, gives an estimated date of 115 mya, in the Cretaceous, for the evolution of the first Cimicidae. When bats appeared some 50 million years later, the parasites switched hosts, feeding on bats and birds from then on. The group colonised humans as hosts on three occasions. The genus Cimex is seen to be polyphyletic. Afrocimicinae, Haematosiphoninae, Latrocimicinae were not included in the analysis. References External links Heteroptera families Parasitic bugs Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille