560 



Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVII 



family closely related to the Nycteribiidse. But little is known of their 

 reproductive habits, though it is believed that they are also pupiparous. 



Buried in the skin of bats are sometimes found maggot-like parasites, 

 of a curious flask-shape, which are really adult flies. They have been 

 described under the generic name Ascodipteron, and were even separated 

 as a distinct family, the Ascodipteridse. Recently it has been proved that 

 Ascodipteron is only a stage in the adult life of a streblid. On emerging 

 from the pupa the fly has legs, wings, and a large proboscis; the females 

 however soon pierce the skin of a bat and bury themselves deeply within, 

 at the same time losing legs and wings and altering the rest of their external 

 form. These curious insects are pupiparous (or better, larviparous) like the 

 Nyeteribiidse; the orince through which the adult larva is released opens 

 through the skin of the bat. Several species of Ascodipteron have been 

 described, 1 and they are curious examples, in their life-history, of what is 

 called " postimaginal development," the changing of the form and the 

 tissues after the last molt (Dr. J. Bequaert). The integuments in which 

 Ascodipteron is usually found are at the base of the ear and on the wing; 

 we found them on Hipposideros caffer centralis as well as on one or two other 

 bats from caves at Aba. 



The two bugs found on Pipistrellus musciculus (p. 553) belong to the 

 family Cimicidse, the same that includes the common bed-bug. Several gen- 

 era live as parasites on bats, but these particular specimens have not yet been 

 identified. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES XLIV-LV. 



Plate XLIV (in color). 



Heads of males. 



Fig. 1. Epomophorus anurus Heuglin. f. 



Fig. 2. Epomops franqueti franqueti (Tomes), f . 



Fig. 3. Eidolon helvum (Kerr), f. 



Fig. 4. Hypsignathus monstrosus H. Allen, f. 



Sketched from freshly killed specimens by J. P. Chapin. 



Plate XLV. 



Fig. 1. Epomops franqueti franqueti (Tomes). Head of adult male, No. 49196, 

 Niapu, December, 1913. 



Fig. 2. Epomops franqueti franqueti (Tomes). Head of a very young female, 

 No.. 48718, Medje, Sept. 12, 1910. 



This and the following plates from photographs by H. Lang. 



1 For a very complete account see F. Muir, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, LIV, 

 1912, p. 351. 



