Ascodipteron rhinopomatos
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Hippoboscidae
- Genus: Ascodipteron
- Species: Ascodipteron rhinopomatos
Visual Description
Ascodipteron rhinopomatos exhibits highly specialized morphological adaptations characteristic of its genus. Observations from museum specimens indicate a body form significantly modified for its parasitic lifestyle, featuring a robust, somewhat globular or sac-like abdomen in females, which is typical for species that embed within the host's skin. The head and thorax are distinct, though reduced in size relative to the abdomen, and the overall structure reflects a transition toward a sedentary, endoparasitic existence.[1]
Ecology and Host Associations
Ascodipteron rhinopomatos is an ectoparasite known to infest bats of the family Rhinopomatidae. Documented host associations include Rhinopoma hardwickii (including the subspecies R. hardwickii arabium) and Rhinopoma cystops (including the subspecies R. cystops cystops).[2]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Hippoboscidae / Ascodipteron / rhinopomatos constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Ascodipteron rhinopomatos. Global Biotic Interactions. https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/?targetTaxon=Ascodipteron%20rhinopomatos. Accessed 2026-07-14.