Hi Alice,

A pity that for me it is not possible to zoom in on the picture. Maybe you can can give a link to the photo? Some colleagues of me do research on parasites, maybe they recognize the parasites?

Great research with a lot of species!

René 

Thanks Rene, I can send it by email if you can't zoom in. Tonight we caught a bat with a much smaller botfly larvae-which we were able to remove without injuring the bat, and I should be able to send a photo tomorrow

Hi Alice,

Or maybe put a dropbox- link of something else? By that way, other people here can help you also?

René

Hi Alice,

I cannot zoom into the photo too. 

Hi Alice,

I think it is probably an Ascodipterinae species that belongs to the family Streblidae. Altough the males are winged the females encyst themselves into the skin of the hosts. They usually infect  Hipposideros, Rhinolophus and as I know Miniopterus species as well.  I attached for you two recent papers on this topic maybe it helps.  Anyway as I know there are not known botfly species of bats.  

All the best,

Tamara

Thanks Tamara. The students were working on ectoparasites, and did get alot of streblids, and all the "usual suspects" but I'm about 98% sure that these were botflies. We could only extract one juvenile-as the others had much harder warbles round them and we did not want to damage the bats-though at least 4 individuals were infected. Only the base of ears of Male Rhinolophus stheno were infected with Bots (1-7 per bat), though about 40% of the 133 bats examined had various types of parasite including mites (mainly Myotis), ticks (Hipposiderids) and various batflies and wing lice

Hi Alice,

In The Netherlands I think 9 off 10 has ectoparasites. This paper could be interesting: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229505082_Ectoparasite_load_in_European_vespertilionid_bats?ev=pub_cit 

And also what parasites doing with the structure on colonies by bats and the host parasite interactions: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274092209_Host_and_parasite_life_history_interplay_to_yield_divergent_population_genetic_structures_in_two_ectoparasites_living_on_the_same_bat_species 

René

Article Ectoparasite load in European vespertilionid bats

Article Host and parasite life history interplay to yield divergent ...

I favour Tamara's suggestion that these could be Ascodipteron females, but I should like to see a good image of one of the creatures. As far as I know there are no known cases of blow flies or muscid flies producing myiasis in bats. It is highly unlikely that these are bot fly larvae. Partly because no other case of bats infected with bot flies is known, partly because bot fly larvae grow rather big and would probably interfere with normal bat life (e.g., flying). Some bot flies infect mice, and even these are very large so that the mice get 'clumsy' when larvae are close to maturity. Bot flies are entirely diurnal and do not enter caves, and it would be difficult to imagine how bats would get infected.

I'm uploading photos into a google-drive folder (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-eGUNqy-l6LaUpySjBMcFB1c28&usp=sharing).

The photos show the ears of two infected bats (only male Rhinolophus stheno, and they may be roosting in overhangs and crevices rather than caves). As I mentioned the mature larvae could not be extracted, but a smaller one could-and microscope photos are being uploaded now.

I looked at other photos of botflies, and it does look similar-even the small larvae has proto-spikes.

I don't see the tipical characteristics of the botfly larvae on the photo that you uploaded so I would exclude that thought. Anyway there are some cases when myasis was observed in bats but this is very rare and I think it is definitely not that on your photo. Here is a recent article about the myasis of some bat in Europe: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nikolay_Simov/publication/276173096_Two_Cases_of_Myiases_Caused_by_Blowflies_(Diptera_Calliphoridae)_on_Noctule_Bats_(Nyctalus_noctula_Schreber_1774)_(Chiroptera)_in_Bulgaria/links/5551cc7a08ae739bdb92369f.pdf

Article Two Cases of Myiases Caused by Blowflies (Diptera: Calliphor...

Thanks. There are two microscope photos up too now, did you see them?

Thanks. There are two microscope photos up too now, did you see them?

I've managed to find photos of encysted Ascodipterans-and I can see the possibility-but I can't find any photos of the larvae to check

http://casopis.vesmir.cz/files/obr/nazev/2000_134_03/type/html

Altough it is about another species but if you check this figure you can see that the Ascodipteron sp. on the right side has a quite similar characteristics like on your photos. 

thanks-that's a real help. Odd that they were only on Male Rhinos!

Dear Alice,

I saw the photos and I agree with Tamara. These parasites are females of Ascodipterinae.

About myiasis in bats, once I receive (more than 10 years ago) a larvae of bot fly that was removed from the back of a phyllostomid bat (Artibeus lituratus). I think to be an oestrid larvae. Then myiasis can occur in bats.

Best regards

Gustavo

Dear Gustavo,

Interesting with a possible bot fly larva from the back of Artibeus lituratus. This could be Dermatobia hominis, which is unique in using mosquitoes and other Diptera as carriers of its eggs. But it could also be the primary screw worm Cochliomyia hominivorax. Do you have any evidence like a preserved larva or a photograph?

Hi Thomas, 

Unhappy I have no photograph. Gledson Bianconi, a specialist of bats, brought the larva to me and said that was removed from bat´s back. I showed the larva to Aricio Linhares and he confirmed it is an oestrid fly. I don´t know where the larva is. I don´t remenber if the larva is in Curitiba or in Campinas with Arício.

At that time I though that bats could be parasitized by Pseudogametes. Of course it´s a kick...

Best regards

Gustavo