Spatial diversity in mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase in house flies

DNA sequence analysis at mitochondrial gene COI was surveyed in 293 house flies, Musca domestica Linneaus (Diptera: Muscidae), in 29 populations from North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Western Pacific. Nei's gene diversity index (H-S) was 0.47, the chance that two randomly chosen flies have different COI haplotypes. Haplotype diversity was greater in the Old World (H-S = 0.58) than the New World (H-S = 0.31). The hierarchical partition of the total diversity indicated substantial differentiation at all levels (G(ST) = 0.30), and highly structured populations. All pairwise estimates of gene flow between zoogeographical regions were less than 0.70 reproducing females per generation. The results are compared to those of a similar study based on the single-strand conformation polymorphism method. Probable colonization scenarios for house flies into the New World are discussed and it is concluded that house flies are a recent addition to the fauna of the Western Hemisphere.