Nycteribiidae
Bat fly
- Nycteribia
- Basilia
- Penicillidia
The bat flies ( Nycteribiidae ), also known as spiders flies, are a family of two-winged flies (Diptera ); within this they are the flies ( Brachycera ) assigned.
Features
The bat flies are wingless and usually distinguished by a spider-like shape. The animals are small and can reach a height of a few millimeters. The hips ( coxae ) of the animals are very much shifted to the back, so that the legs are spread wide. The head is placed back into the rest position to the thorax, and is there in a gutter. Even the eyes are largely regressed or absent. Through several bristle combs and bristles on the body, the attachment is favored in the host. The skin of the bat flying is very tough, so that crushing of the animals with your fingers is hardly possible.
Way of life
The bat flies parasitize as ectoparasites on bats and where they feed on the blood of their hosts. You keep this firmly in the fur of the animals. In some species, the host specificity is very pronounced, not infrequently, however, parasitize several species on the same host. So Nycteribia pedicularia prefers to live on the Greater and Lesser Mouse-ear and on other Myotis species.
The copulation of the bat fly often takes several hours, the pair walking around and occasionally somersaults (seen in Nycteribia pedicularia ). Such copulation lasts for several generations larvae. The larvae, which are born in verpuppungsreifen stage, are always delivered into the dwellings of the bats. This means the active discovery of the novel hosts is simplified.
System
Often the Nycteribiidae with the Streblidae, which are often also referred to as the bat flies and the actual louse flies ( Hippoboscidae ) be the louse flies in the broader sense ( Pupipara ) summarized. All three groups bring larvae to the world that already pupate immediately after birth.
Worldwide there are about 250 species of bat flies known, of which only seven in Germany. In Europe, the family of the bat flying is represented by four genera and 17 species.
- Basilia daganiae Theodor & Moscona, 1954
- Basilia italica Theodor, 1954
- Basilia mediterranea Hurka, 1970
- Basilia mongolensis nudior Hurka, 1972
- Basilia mongolensis Theodor, 1966
- Basilia nana Theodor & Moscona, 1954
- Basilia nattereri Kolenati, 1857
- Nycteribia vexata Westwood, 1835
- Nycteribia kolenatii Theodor & Moscona, 1954
- Nycteribia latreillii ( Leach, 1817)
- Nycteribia pedicularia Latreille, 1805
- Nycteribia schmidlii Schiner, 1853
- Penicillidia conspicua Speiser, 1901
- Penicillidia dufourii dufourii ( Westwood, 1835)
- Penicillidia dufourii ( Westwood, 1835)
- Penicillidia monoceros Speiser, 1900
- Phthiridium biarticulatum Hermann, 1804