Mystacinobia zelandica
This endemic fly is blind, wingless, and entirely dependent on a supply of guano and the warmth of a bat roost to survive. First discovered on a bat in the 1950s, it wasn’t until a colony was found inside Kopi, a famous kauri (Agathis australis) that collapsed under its own weight in 1973, that it was formally described by Beverly Holloway.
This species is 4–9 mm long and have specially adapted long bristly claws which may aid in moving in bat fur. Males are larger than females and have hairier thoraxes, while females having larger and more distended abdomens. In the wild, the bat fly lives only in tree roosts of the nationally threatened short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata) in a very few places across the country. There can be thousands of bat flies of all life stages from egg to adult in one bat roost, living on guano-coated walls inside a tree hollow. Some adults, mostly gravid females, cling to bats whenever they take flight, ensuring they can start a new colony should the bats abandon their roost. Research suggests that these insects need temperatures approaching 30°C to prosper; so without bats to generate heat inside the enclosed space of a roost, bat-flies soon die. Males live longer than females. Older males that have already mated produce sound, possibly to deter bats from the fly colony where they might cause substantial damage. Mutual grooming by larvae and adults is also known. Related species overseas living with bats, are parasitic, while the New Zealand species lives in symbiosis with the bats.
Check these links for more info on the Bat Fly in NZ
Wikipedia: Information on Mystacinobia zelandica
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