Nycteribiidae

Nycteribiidae is a family of the true fly superfamily Hippoboscoidea. Together with their close relatives the Streblidae, they are known as "bat flies". As the latter do not seem to be a monophyletic group, it is conceivable that bat flies cannot be united into a single family.^[1]

Nycteribiidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Nycteribiidae Samouelle 1819
Subfamilies
Three; see text

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 rarely leave the body of their hosts. Female bat flies often must leave their hosts to breed and lay eggs, however, they will not leave their bats immediate habitat. Both males and females take blood meals, thus qualifying as parasites. Most species are highly host-specific. The family is primarily found in the Old World tropics; a few of the 274^[2] known species occur in the Neotropics and Europe.

General

• Subfamily Archinycteribiinae Maa, 1975

• Archinycteribia Speiser, 1901

• Subfamily Cyclopodiinae Maa, 1965

• Cyclopodia Kolenati, 1863
• Dipseliopoda Theodor, 1955
• Eucampsipoda Kolenati, 1857
• Leptocyclopodia Theodor, 1959

• Subfamily Nycteribiinae Westwood, 1835

• Basilia Miranda Ribeiro, 1903
• Hershkovitzia Guimarães & d'Andretta, 1956
• Nycteribia Latreille, 1796
• Penicillidia Kolenati, 1863
• Phthiridium Hermann, 1804
• Stereomyia Theodor, 1967^[2]
• 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 contains wings. They have backward folded legs that resemble those of spiders and a dorsally inserted head.^[3]