596 
Njjctenhiidae 
from 3 species of bats in a large cave at Hammam Meskoutine in Eastern 
Algeria (P. A. Buxton, Ent. Record, Vol. xxvi, 1914, p. 68). One species 
of bat, Myotis oxygnathus, harboured 3 species of Nycteribiids; the 
other two, Rkinolophus euryale and Miniopterus schreibersi, were in¬ 
fested by only one species apiece. Also, none of the 5 species of para¬ 
sites was taken from more than one species of bat. But the Rhino- 
lophus and Miniopterus were found almost solitarily, in parts of the 
cave removed from one another and from the Myotis, great numbers 
of which were congregated in one place; .and it is precisely this last 
species which harboured 3 kinds of Nycteribiids. If this was the 
normal disposition of the bats when at rest, it helps to explain the 
distribution of the insects, on the assumption that the latter do not 
wander any distance from their hosts. 
Recent biological observations. Apart from the broad facts of 
their larviparism and parasitism, the biology of Nycteribiidae has been 
hitherto very little known. Recently, however, a very interesting paper 
by Rodhain and Bequaert (1916) has been published, describing in detail 
the behaviour of one species, Cyclopodia greeffi Karsch (= ruhiginosa 
Bigot^), in the Belgian Congo. These writers commence by summarising 
the earlier contributions of Westwood, Osten-Sacken, etc., but they do 
not appear to have noticed some valuable particulars d propos of certain 
Oriental forms contained in a paper by Muir (1912). It is intended 
here to give a resume of Rodhain’s and Bequaert’s work, referring also to 
that of Muir for purposes of comparison. 
Rodhain and Bequaert procured at Leopoldville a number of living 
fruit-eating bats, Cynonycteris straminea E. Geoffr., which almost 
always harboured abundant specimens of Cyclopodia greeffi, to which 
species alone do their statements refer. The bats proved easy to keep 
alive in cages of wire-gauze. During almost the whole day they hung 
motionless, head downwards, from wooden perches, but at night they 
climbed actively about. They were fed almost entirely on bananas. 
In one case the roof of the cage was glazed, so that the movements of 
the parasites on the bodies of their hosts could be watched. [Muir was 
less fortunate, since the forms observed by him lived on an insect¬ 
eating bat, Miniopterus schreibersi : many specimens of this were placed 
1 The insects were determined as C. greeffi from Karsch’s description, published in 
1884. Specimens, submitted to me later, proved to be identical with the type of 
G. ruhiginosa Bigot (1891), with which I compared them. It is extremely probable that 
the two names are synonyms; C. greeffi was originally discovered on the same species of 
bat as Rodhain’s and Bequaert’s material. 
