I wonder if there is scope for Dipterists and bat groups to link up in order to get a better picture of the flies that occur within such places?
We know really very little about the distribution of bat flies Nycteribiidae and Dipterists very rarely see them. There are other flies, however, that seem to be closely associated with bat guano, especially Heliomyzidae. Again, Dipterists don't see them, especially as access to bat roosts is restricted.
Maybe there is somebody in the 'batting' community who would be interested in taking on a project to look at what can be bred out of bat guano? Alternatively, perhaps we could find a Dipterist who would be prepared to accept samples of bat guano and try to breed flies from it? I'm not specifically volunteering, but would be interested in trying a limited number of samples to see how practical such a project might be.
Any takers amongst the bat groups to help supply guano, and a Dipterist or two to try breeding from it?
Sounds interesting. There’s always larvae in the bottom of the bat boxes. I’m happy to collect samples but not sure about rearing flies, sounds a bit specialist for me.
ReplyDeleteIf you collect the contents of a few bat boxes I will happily take then and rear the larvae - it would be very good to get an idea of what is going on! drop me a line on my gmail account syrphid58 is the prefix to at gmail dot com
DeleteI will help you rear the flies jimjamcole
DeleteWe need a scheme to match us up!!
ReplyDelete