Anastrebla caudiferae
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Hippoboscidae
- Genus: Anastrebla
- Species: Anastrebla caudiferae
Visual Description
Anastrebla caudiferae is a small, specialized ectoparasitic fly. Observations from museum specimen imagery reveal a dorsoventrally flattened body, an adaptation typical of its parasitic lifestyle on bats. The specimens exhibit a distinct, sclerotized exoskeleton with a brownish coloration. The head is small and closely associated with the thorax, while the legs are robust and equipped with specialized claws for gripping host fur. The wings are reduced or modified, consistent with the morphology of many streblid flies.[1]
Ecology and Distribution
Anastrebla caudiferae is an ectoparasitic insect. While traditionally associated with the family Streblidae, it is classified within the superfamily Hippoboscoidea.[2]
The species is primarily associated with bats of the family Phyllostomidae, with the bat Anoura caudifer recognized as its primary host.[2] It has also been recorded on other bat species, such as Carollia brevicauda, Enchisthenes hartii, and Glossophaga soricina, which are considered accidental hosts.[2]
A. caudiferae has a broad distribution in South America, with records from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia (including the departments of Caldas, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Huila, and Nariño).[2]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Hippoboscidae / Anastrebla / caudiferae constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- 1 2 3 4 Jorge Raigosa Álvarez; Carolina García Osorio; Analía G. Autino; Lucimar Gomes Dias. First records of ectoparasitic insects (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) of bats in the department of Caldas, Colombia. Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 2020. https://doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2020.60.18.