9(58 JOVRNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol XXVIII. 
\vliich are almost unique among insects. The tarsi are five-jointed 
u,nd the distal joint is furnished with a pair of curved claws like grap- 
pling irons. The first tarsal segment is of immense length, very slender 
and occasionally bowed. It is capable of being twisted in every 
direction and in some species is actually longer than the tibia which 
is next to it. The result is to increase the prehensile power of the 
parasites when the bats move and to enable them to adjust their 
hold to any contortions of the hosts. 
The abdomen is the bulkiest portion of the insect’s body. That 
•of the male is darker and more chitinous ; that of the female is soft, 
membranous and capable of distention. Both sexes have numerous 
bristles on the abdomen directed backwards and systematically 
arranged so as to be of some taxonomic importance. The total length 
of the body is from one to four millimetres. The largest species are 
parasitic on tropical fruit-bats. The majority of species are provided 
Avith ctenidia or combs such as are familiar to students of fleas and 
some other insects parasitic on mammals or birds. The combs 
are furnished with horny teeth and facilitate progress through or 
over the fur of the host. They may also serve to protect the joints 
of the parasite against the hairs of the host. All Nycteribiids 
(except the genus Eremoctenia which has no combs at all) have a 
pair of combs attached to the thorax in front of the insertion of 
the first pair of legs. Associated with the comb is a groove from 
which apparently it can be raised, or into which it can be depressed 
by special muscles, as occasion may require. The thoracic combs 
may have from 9 to 22 teeth. They are not, as was once thought, 
atrophied vestiges of a pair of wings but distinct organs evolved 
in connection with parasitic life. All Nycteribiids (except the two 
genera Eremoctenia and Archinycteribia) have a comb on the under- 
side of the abdomen attached to the second segment. There are 
seven segments but the first is almost invisible. 
Speiser in the paper alluded to above gives the following thirteen 
species as having been obtained in the Indian region where the Nyc- 
teribiids are represented by more species than in other geographical 
regions. Our knowledge is too scanty to lay down in detail the geo- 
graphical distribution of the various forms. 
Indian Region. 
1. Penicillidia ienynsi (Westw.) 
2. J\ euxesta, Sp. 
3. Nycteribia minuta, v. d. W. 
4. N. stichotricha, Sp. 
5. N. roylei. Westw. 
fi. N. parvula. Sp. 
7. N. allotopa, Sp. 
8. Cyclopodia albertisi, Rnd. 
9. C. horsfieldi, de Meij. 
10. C. sykesi ( x West w . ) 
11. C. hopei (Westw.) 
12. C. ferrarii (Rnd.) 
13. Eucampsipoda hyrtli (Kol.) 
