Batfly
www.nzgeo.com
It's an ant! It's a spider. No—it's BATFLY! A blind, wingless species of fly that lives on and with New Zealand short-tailed bats in strange symbiotic relationship. Similar animals infesting bats in South America and elsewhere are blood-sucking parasites—the vampire's vampire—but the New Zealand version is a vegetarian coprophage specialising in the management of bat guano.

This is a really good read about one of my favourite weird animal facts!

  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    0·
    8 months ago

    Reminds me of that old joke.

    What do you call a fly without wings?

    Mystacinobia zelandica

    .

    Typically, these archaic New Zealanders behave in ways the rest-of the-world team thinks truly weird.

    Shots fired!

    But seriously, this was a neat read. A species of fly that can’t fly, similar to bat flies in other countries except our one doesn’t eat the bat, it eats their poo instead!

    • liv@lemmy.nzOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      Yeah it was cool eh, I loved all the stuff about the tree and how there are always pregnant bat riders to make sure the species continues.