﻿BRAULIDAE STREBLIDAE NVCTERIBIIDAE 



521 



the bee, and appears as the perfect Insect in about twenty-one 

 days. Miiggenburg suggests that Britain may be oviparous, as he 

 has never found a larva in the abdomen. Packard says that on the 

 day the larva hatches from the egg it sheds its skin and turns to an 

 oval puparium of a dark brown colour. The Insect is frequently 

 though inappropriately called bee-louse ; notwithstanding its name 

 it is not quite blind, though the eyes are very imperfect. 



Fam. 42. Streblidae. — Winged ; possessing halteres ; the 

 head small, narrow and free. These very rare Diptera are 

 altogether problematic. According to Xolenati the larvae live in 

 bats' excrement and the perfect Insects on the bats. 1 If the 

 former statement be correct the Insects can scarcely prove to be 

 Pupipara. The wing-nervuration is, in the figures of the 

 Russian author, quite different from that of Hippoboscidae. The 

 Streblidae have been associated by some entomologists with 

 Nycteribiidae, and by Williston with Hippoboscidae. 



Family 43. Nycteribiidae. — The species of this family are 



Fig. 248. — Nycteribia sp. , from Xantharjy/ia- straminea. Aden. A, Upper surface of 

 female, with head in the position of repose ; B, under surface of male. x -! f ". 



found on bats ; they are apparently rare, and we have been able 



to examine only one species. The form is very peculiar, the 



1 Home Soc. exit. Eoss. ii. 1863, p. 90. 



