First record and analysis of the COI gene of Cobboldia elephantis obtained from a captive Asian elephant from Myanmar

Abstract

The stomach bot fly species in Asian elephants has long been known as Cobboldia elephantis. However, there is no genetic information available for this species to date. Here, we report that a third-instar fly larva was excreted from a captive Asian elephant four months after export from an elephant camp in Myanmar to a zoological garden in Japan. Morphological characteristics of the larva were coincident with published descriptions of C. elephantis. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was amplified from the larva by PCR using primers modified from those designed for DNA barcoding of insects and amphibians. The COI gene of C. elephantis showed 76.6 % and 83.6 % identity at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively, to that of C. loxodontis, the stomach bot fly species in African elephants. Phylogenetic analysis of the COI genes of several stomach bot fly species revealed that the two Cobboldia species formed a clade separate from the stomach bot fly species found in rhinoceros and equids.

Keywords: Asian elephant; COI gene; Cobboldia elephantis; Myanmar; phylogenetic tree; stomach bot fly.