The first fossil streblid bat fly, Enischnomyia stegosoma n. g., n. sp. (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea: Streblidae) George Poinar • Alex Brown Received: 24 September 2011 / Accepted: 20 October 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract The first fossil streblid, Enischnomyia stegosoma n. g., n. sp. (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea: Streblidae), is described from Dominican amber. Placed in the subfamily Nycterophiliinae Wenzel, 1966, which includes two New World extant genera, Nycterophilia Ferris, 1916 and Phalconomus Wenzel, 1984 (=Phalcophila Wenzel, 1976), the male speci- men of E. stegosoma is characterised by the following features: a laterally compressed body, well-developed two-segmented antennae with the scape fused with the head, a tubular pedicel with an annulated basal portion and swollen apical portion bearing setae and bristles, a distinct flagellum with a dorsal boss bearing microse- tae and a subterminal pectinate arista, a large tubular labium (proboscis) with the tip held upwards, eyes reduced to three facets, an expanded and flattened profemur, an anteriorly curved protarsus, and a well- developed wing with an entire distal margin. The possession of wings separates E. stegosoma from the species of Phalconomus, and the wing outline and venation, as well as the structure of the antennae and palps, distinguish it from species of Nycterophilia. Introduction Bat flies of the families Streblidae Kolenati, 1863 and Nycteribiidae Samouelle, 1819 (Diptera: Hipp- oboscoidea) spend most of their lives on bats, with both sexes feeding on blood and residing in the hair or on the wing membranes (Wenzel & Peterson, 1981; Dick & Patterson, 2006; Lloyd, 2002). Bat flies are considered ‘‘pupiparous’’ and are similar to tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) in nourishing their larvae by milk glands inside the uterus and exhib- iting viviparous puparity through depositing mature larvae or newly formed pupae (prepupae) instead of eggs. The streblid bat flies occur globally and currently comprise five subfamilies, 32 genera and 227 species (Dick & Patterson, 2006). While they spend most of their lives on the bat host, they do leave during mating flights and visit the walls or floors of the bat’s roosting sites. Each streblid usually has a specific niche on the bat, such as the head, trunk or wing membrane (Wenzel & Peterson, 1981). While bat flies are considered relatively derived (Yeates & Wiegmann, 1999), the fossil described here (Fig. 1) shows that they were present in the mid- G. Poinar (&) Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA e-mail: poinarg@science.oregonstate.edu A. Brown 629 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94708, USA 123 Syst Parasitol (2012) 81:79–86 DOI 10.1007/s11230-011-9339-2