New Zealand bat fly

New Zealand bat fly
Male Mystacinobia zelandica illustrated by Des Helmore
Male Mystacinobia zelandica illustrated by Des Helmore
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Clade:Euarthropoda
Class:Insecta
Order:Diptera
Family:Mystacinobiidae
Genus:Mystacinobia
Species: M. zelandica
Binomial name
Mystacinobia zelandica
Holloway, 1976[1]

The New Zealand bat fly (Mystacinobia zelandica) is a small, wingless insect which lives in a commensalist relationship with the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat. It is a member of the true flies that belong to the order Diptera[2] but is the sole member of its family, Mystacinobiidae , and genus, Mystacinobia (making both of these monotypic). Although many other species of bat fly exist throughout the world, the New Zealand bat fly is endemic only to the islands of New Zealand.[3] It appears to be the only insect, parasitic or otherwise, which lives with these bats (fleas, for example, which are common on many other species of bat, are unknown on the short-tailed bat).[1]

Description

New Zealand bat flies are approximately 3 mm long,[2] wingless in both sexes,[3] blind,[4] and have long, bristly, spider-like legs which end in specially adapted claws which are thought to help them "swim" through bat fur.[4][5] Males are larger than females[2][5] and look quite different; one Japanese expert when sent some of the first specimens collected for scientific study suggested that they were different species.[5]

Discovery

Mystacinobia was discovered in 1958[2] and the first specimen was catalogued for analysis by a zoologist named P.D. Dwyer in 1962 after it dropped out of the fur of a short-tailed bat he was looking after.[5] In 1973 a 56 metre high kauri tree in the Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary in Northland containing a large colony of short tailed bats collapsed. When inspected the following day a dead bat with three bat flies on it was found by a New Zealand forest service officer who sent the insects to Auckland to be studied.[5] The opportunity to study live bat flies and learn about their behaviour and ecology was lost when the bats deserted their felled roost before a team of scientists from DSIR was assembled to investigate it.[5] Two years later on 14 March 1975 however, the kauri tree which the bats that had previously occupied the first tree had moved into was blown over as Cyclone Allison swept through Northland.[5] This time entomologists were able to collect a large number of these newly-discovered bat flies for anatomical studies and to keep in captivity so that their behaviour could be studied.[2][5]

Ecology

Almost everything about this fly is unusual. Unlike all other bat flies, the New Zealand bat fly is not dependent on the blood of the bats with which it lives, instead feeding on guano. It lives in colonies and the females lay their eggs in large shared nurseries of eggs and larvae. The adult females will groom the larvae in the nurseries as well as each other and their other colony mates. There also seems to be the beginning of a caste system as some of the males live past their normal reproductive age and act as colony guards. These elderly males produce a high frequency buzz that seems to keep the bats from flying too close to the fly colony.[6]

Moreover, as this species of bat is also an insect-eater, the flies would appear to be under constant threat of being eaten by their "hosts." The vibrations of these elderly males appears to be the mechanism by which the fly prevents itself from becoming prey.[1]

Taxonomy and naming

Molecular analysis suggests that it evolved from a blow fly ancestor.[3] The ancestors of the host species (Icarops, a Miocene bat which lived 20MYA) also lived in Australia but it is not known whether the New Zealand bat fly evolved there or in New Zealand as it could have been transported across the Tasman Sea with its host.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Holloway, Beverley A. (1976). "A new bat-fly family from New Zealand (Diptera: Mystacinobiidae)". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 3 (4): 279–301. doi:10.1080/03014223.1976.9517919.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ballance A. Morris R.(2008).Rare Wildlife of New Zealand, page 39. Random House
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gibbs G.(2008). Ghosts of Gondwana, page 16. Craig Potton publishing
  4. 1 2 Meads M.(1990). Forgotten Fauna, page 92. DSIR publishing
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hunt R. Morris. R. (2006) bat fly! New Zealand Geographic # 81
  6. ↑ Ross Piper (2007), Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press.
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