Diagnosis. Small, wingless, bristly spider-like flies. Head in resting position bent backwards on thorax. Thorax flattened dorsoventrally. Legs strong, adorned with long bristles. Abdominal sternites fused into a modified sclerotized plate, resulting in head and legs arising dorsally; synsternite 1+2 usually with row of spines (ctenidium) along posterior margin. Male terminalia with modified sternite 5 and well-developed surstyli. Female abdomen largely membranous, tergites and sternites often small.
Biology. Nycteribiidae are obligate blood-sucking ectoparasites of bats. Their peculiar build allows them to move in any direction through the fur of their bat host. Adults pass most of their lives on the host. Nycteribiidae are larviparous, i.e. females rear one larva at a time until it is fully developed. Just before larviposition, the female leaves the host and deposits a prepupa on the wall of the bat roost. The prepupa is fixed to the substrate with its flat ventral surface and transforms to a pupa within an hour. Metamorphosis may take 20-30 days, or may be postponed for hibernation. Nycteribiidae exhibit various degrees of host specificity, ranging from species-specific associations, through associations with closely related host species to apparent absence of any host preference.
General references. Hůrka (1998 [general, keys to genera]), Hůrka & Soós (1986 [catalogue], Hutson (1984 [general, keys]), Peterson & Wenzel (1987 [general, keys to genera]), Theodor (1967 [world revision]).
References to the local fauna. Bels (1940), De Meijere (1939b), Plateau (1873), Schuurmans Stekhoven Jr (1955), Schuurmans Stekhoven Jr & Van den Broek (1969).
How to quote this page: Jong, H. de, & P.L.Th. Beuk, 2001. Family Nycteribiidae. In: Beuk, P.L.Th. (Ed.): Checklist of the Diptera of the Netherlands, https://diptera-info.nl/news.php?fam=Nycteribiidae (date accessed: 17/05/2025).
NL: 4
B: 5
D: 4
UK: 3
World: 270
NYCTERIBIIDAE
Basilia Miranda Ribeiro, 1903
nana Theodor & Moscona, 1954
N
= nattereri (Kolenati, 1857): misident. sensu auct.
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