Nycteribiidae is a family of the true

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Hippoboscoidea Hippoboscoidea is a superfamily of the Calyptratae. The flies in this superfamily are blood-feeding obligate parasites of their hosts. Four families are often placed here: * Glossinidae - Tsetse flies *Hippoboscidae - Ked flies *Nycteribiidae - B ...

are known as "bat flies", together with their close relatives the

Streblidae The Streblidae are a family of flies in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, and together with their relatives the Nycteribiidae, are known as bat flies. They are winged or wingless ectoparasites of bats, and often have long legs. They appear to be ho ...

. As the latter do not seem to be a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group, it is conceivable that bat flies cannot be united into a single

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

. They are flattened, spiderlike flies without eyes or wings, and as such bear very little resemblance to other Dipterans. These flies are seldom encountered by general collectors, as they almost never leave the bodies of their hosts. Both males and females take blood meals, thus they qualify as real parasites. Most species are highly host-specific. The family is primarily found in the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

; a few of the 274 known

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

occur in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

and in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Genera

* Subfamily Archinycteribiinae Maa, 1975 :* '' Archinycteribia''

Speiser Speiser is a German and Yiddish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ambros Speiser (1922–2003), Swiss engineer and scientist *Andreas Speiser (1885–1970), Swiss mathematician *Elisabeth Speiser (born 1940), Swiss operatic sopra ...

, 1901 *Subfamily Cyclopodiinae Maa, 1965 :* '' Cyclopodia''

Kolenati Friedrich August Rudolph Kolenati (12 September 1812 – 17 July 1864) was a Czechoslovakia, Czech-Ethnic Germans, German botanist and zoologist active primarily in Prague and Brno. Kolenati was born in Prague where he completed elementary school ...

, 1863 :* '' Dipseliopoda''

Theodor Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blueger, ...

, 1955 :* '' Eucampsipoda''

, 1857 :* '' Leptocyclopodia''

, 1959 * Subfamily Nycteribiinae Westwood, 1835 :* '' Basilia'' Miranda Ribeiro, 1903 :* '' Hershkovitzia'' Guimarães & d'Andretta, 1956 :* '' Nycteribia'' Latreille, 1796 :* '' Penicillidia''

, 1863 :* '' Phthiridium'' Hermann, 1804 :* '' Stereomyia''

, 1967 :* '' Stylidia'' Westwood, 1840

Morphology

One of the key morphological features of Nycteribiidae is their highly reduced compound eyes. Many species of Nycteribiidae contain no visible eyes or contain only rudimentary eye spots. None of the species contain wings. They have backward folded legs that resemble those of spiders and a dorsally inserted head.Kirk-Spriggs, Ashley H., Marion Kotrba, and Robert S. Copeland. "Further details of the morphology of the enigmatic African fly Mormotomyia hirsuta Austen (Diptera: Mormotomyiidae)." African Invertebrates 52.1 (2011): 145-165.

References

External links

Diptera.info
Images

(Contains links to illustrations) Brachycera families Parasites of bats Taxa named by George Samouelle Wingless Diptera {{Hippoboscoidea-stub

Genera

Morphology

References

Further reading

External links