At a recent Bedfordshire Natural History meeting, Alan Outen put a request for records of under recorded species. One of these were bat parasites and so we promised to keep an eye out, though we very rarely see one. On Tuesday night when Bob and Aidan were out batting, they caught a Natterer’s bat and there in plain sight was a bat fly. These animals are usually notoriously difficult to remove from the bat, but this one came quietly and ended its life in a specimen tube preserved in a few drops of whisky. We took it over to Alan, who gave us specimen tubes with 70% alcohol for\u00a0 future captives. He has confirmed that the beasty is Nycteribia kolenatii<\/i>.This is more usually found on Daubenton’s bats. He sent us some photos before heading off to lead a natural history trip – and promises us photos from his stereo microscope when he gets back.<\/p>\n
The flies are apparently usually found in pairs, the females crawls off the bat in roost to deposit pupa (not eggs) in the roost which then find new hosts.\u00a0 We will be keeping a look out when we are checking bat boxes in future.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bat-fly.jpg\")
<\/a>Nycteribia kolenatii <\/i>Photo by Alan Outen<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At a recent Bedfordshire Natural History meeting, Alan Outen put a request for records of under recorded species. One of these were bat parasites and so we promised to keep an eye out, though we very rarely see one. On … Continue reading