Bat Flies

A part of the work we did in Belize also involved conducting an inventory of bats in areas of Belize. This involved catching bats in specialized nets called mist nets and identifying the bats, but also included the bonus of collecting bat flies.

Bat flies are specialized ectoparasites that only occur on bats and feed on their blood. There are two main families of bat flies (Nycteribiidae - these are mostly found in the Old World, and the Streblidae - these are mostly found in the New World).  A previous Lab Note described bat flies too.

As the name implies, they are members of the fly order Diptera.  The bat flies we collected in Belize are all members of the family Streblidae. There are over 200 species in this family and they appear to be quite host-specific, meaning that a species of bat fly is usually associated with one species of bat. They are strange looking insects that move quickly and can be difficult to capture. When they possess wings, they can also fly away before we are able to capture them. Definitely a challenge to catch but I find them so very fascinating.

Here are some pictures of the bat flies we brought back from Belize...

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of these photographs were taken with my iPhone being held up to the ocular lens of the dissecting microscope I was using.