Bat Ticks — Part 1

(Family Nycteribiidae.)

These are also wingless, degraded, parasitic flies, which have a similar misnomer in the vernacular, and are called bat ticks. They are quite the most extraordinary of all the flies, the body being small and the legs remarkably long, so that they look almost like spiders. The head is very small and the eyes may be entirely lacking. They are rarely more than one-sixth of an inch in length, but the long legs, which are frequently banded with jet black and silvery white, render them quite conspicuous.