The Streblidae are a

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

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...

in the

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, and together with their relatives the Nycteribiidae, are known as bat flies. They are winged or wingless

ectoparasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

s of bats, and often have long legs. They appear to be host-specific, with different

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 appropriat ...

of bat flies occurring only on particular species of bat hosts, sometimes with multiple species of flies sharing a host bat.

Systematics

The 237 or so

are divided among roughly 33

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and five subfamilies. The monophyly of this family has not been supported. The streblid subfamily Trichobiinae may be more closely related to the Nycteriboscinae and other lineages in the Nycteribiidae. Several authors favor splitting the family into an

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 thei ...

lineage consisting of the Ascodipterinae and Nycteriboscinae and a

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

lineage containing all other subfamilies. The former would be named Ascodipterinae and the latter would retain the name Streblidae. Alternatively, the Streblidae and Nycteribiidae might be united as 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 gr ...

family containing all bat flies. Subfamilies are here listed in presumed order of most ancient to most recently

evolved Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variati ...

. Selected

are also given, sorted alphabetically, as too little is known about their interrelationships. Enischnomyia with Vetufebrus 1

* Subfamily Brachytarsininae Speiser 1900 (sometimes Nycteriboscinae) :*Genus '' Brachytarsina'' Macquart, 1851 :*Genus '' Megastrebla'' Maa, 1971 ::*Subgenus '' Aoroura'' ::*Subgenus '' Megastrebla'' Maa, 1971 :*Genus '' Raymondia'' Frauenfeld, 1855 :*Genus '' Raymondiodes'' Jobling, 1954 * Subfamily Ascodipterinae Monticelli 1898 :*Genus '' Ascodipteron'' Adensamer, 1896 :*Genus '' Maabella'' Hastriter & Bush, 2006 :*Genus '' Paraascodipteron'' Advani & Vazirani, 1981 * Subfamily Nycterophiliinae Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Nycterophilia'' Ferris, 1916 :*Genus '' Phalconomus'' Wenzel, 1984 * Subfamily Streblinae Speiser, 1900 :*Genus '' Anastrebla'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Metelasmus''

Coquillett Daniel William Coquillett (23 January 1856, Pleasant Valley, Ill. – 7 July 1911 Atlantic City, New Jersey) was an American entomologist who specialised in Diptera. He wrote a revision of the dipterous family Therevidae and many other scientifi ...

, 1907 :*Genus '' Paraeuctenodes'' Pessôa & Guimarães, 1937 :*Genus '' Strebla'' Wiedemann, 1824 * Subfamily Trichobiinae Jobling, 1936 :*Genus '' Anatrichobius'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Aspidoptera''

, 1899 :*Genus '' Eldunnia'' Curran, 1934 :*Genus '' Exastinion'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Joblingia'' Dybas & Wenzel, 1947 :*Genus '' Mastoptera'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Megistopoda'' Macquart, 1852 :*Genus '' Megistapophysis'' Dick & Wenzel, 2006 :*Genus '' Neotrichobius'' Wenzel & Aitken, 1966 :*Genus '' Noctiliostrebla'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Paradyschiria'' Speiser, 1900 :*Genus '' Parastrebla'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Paratrichobius'' Costa Lima, 1921 :*Genus '' Pseudostrebla'' Costa Lima, 1921 :*Genus '' Speiseria'' Kessel, 1925 :*Genus '' Stizostrebla'' Jobling, 1939 :*Genus '' Synthesiostrebla'' Townsend, 1913 :*Genus '' Trichobioides'' Wenzel, 1966 :*Genus '' Trichobius'' Gervais, 1844 :*Genus '' Xenotrichobius'' Wenzel, 1976 * Subfamily ''incertae sedis'' :*†'' Enischnomyia'' Poinar & Brown, 2012

Morphology

One of the characteristic feature of streblid bat flies is their variable degree of eye reduction. The compound eyes are highly, but variably reduced, with some species containing only rudimentary eye spots. Ocelli are absent in all species. Wing morphology also significantly varies within the family with some species containing fully functional wings, while others contain either reduced (non functional or functional) wings or no wings at all.

Parasites

Streblid bat flies, which are

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson h ...

s, are themselves infested by

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...

of the order

Laboulbeniales The Laboulbeniales is an order of Fungi within the class Laboulbeniomycetes. They are also known by the colloquial name beetle hangers or labouls. The order includes around 2,325 species of obligate insect ectoparasites that produce cellular t ...

; these fungi are thus hyperparasites.

Systematics

Morphology

Parasites

References

Further reading