Dr Samantha Stoffberg

Fields of interest

If it is a mammal and it flies, then I’m interested! My general interests lie within the fields of evolution and ecology, and the rich diversity of bats makes them great organisms to study in this regard. I strongly believe in a multidisciplinary approach to addressing questions in evolution and ecology and my previous research has involved a multitude of research fields including foraging ecology, radio telemetry (including thermal monitoring), modern molecular phylogenetic reconstruction methods (including character mapping), complex morphological analyses (including geometric morphometrics), evolutionary ecology, coevolution (interactions between bats and moths) and historical biogeography.

For my postdoctoral research at the Evolutionary Genomics Group, I will be comparing the phylogeographic patterns of two South African horseshoe bat species (Genus Rhinolophus) with the phylogeographic patterns of their ectoparasites. Bats represent an important group in this type of investigation because they are mobile and may be capable of crossing physical features in the landscape (such as mountains or deserts) that may represent dispersal barriers to e.g. rodents or reptiles. In addition to having unique lifestyles, bats also have their own parasites – blood-sucking, bat flies. Bat flies are highly specialized, obligate ectoparasites of bats and are divided into two broad families – the volant Streblidae and the flightless Nycteribiidae. This research will address not only the evolution of bats, but also the comparative evolution of their parasites. This will allow me to a) estimate the degree to which the distributions of the two bat species overlap in space and time; (b) estimate the spatial congruence between host and parasite; and (c) identify ecological factors that may explain differences in the distributions of the two bat species and their respective parasites. Furthermore, the results will allow me to determine whether bats and their parasites have similar phylogeographic histories and thus identify whether bat flies can be used to gain insight into the evolutionary history of their bat hosts.