Asia and Europe: So Distant So Close? The Case of Lipoptena fortisetosa in Italy

Abstract

In Europe, 5 <i>Lipoptena</i> species have been recorded, including <i>Lipoptena fortisetosa</i>. This species, native to Asian countries, was described as a parasite of sika deer and its appearance in Europe dates back to more than 50 years ago. <i>Lipoptena fortisetosa</i> has been recently reported in Italy, sharing its hosts with <i>Lipoptena cervi</i>. A morpho-molecular approach was developed to determine the phylogenetic interrelationship of Italian and Asian <i>CO</i>1 haplotypes sequenced from Lipoptena fly individuals collected in Italy, and their DNA sequences were compared with conspecifics available in GenBank; morphological key-characters (terminalia) of <i>L. fortisetosa</i> were compared with the original description. Two haplotypes were recorded from Italy and assigned to <i>L. cervi</i> and <i>L. fortisetosa</i>, respectively. The latter was part of the monophyletic clade <i>L. fortisetosa</i>, along with 2 Central European and 2 Korean haplotypes (100% identical with one of the Korean haplotypes); moreover, Italian <i>L. fortisetosa</i> female terminalia were consistent with the original description of Asian individuals. Pending more in-depth investigations, this study provides a first answer to the hypothesis of the recent colonization of Italy by <i>L. fortisetosa</i> from Asia as we did not detect any obvious and stable morphological and molecular differences in specimens from the 2 geographical areas. The presence of the sika deer in Europe was retraced and the possible route traveled by the parasite from Asia and the eco-biological factors that may have enhanced its settlement are discussed.