Penicillidia conspicua Speiser, 1901

Péter, Áron, Mihalca, Andrei Daniel & Sándor, Attila D., 2022, Annotated checklist of the bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) of Romania, Zootaxa 5120 (1), pp. 111-127 : 119

Penicillidia conspicua Speiser, 1901

Published records. Peștera Fuşteica, Peştera Liliecilor din Mănăstirea Bistrița, Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei ( Decu-Burghele 1962); Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei, Peștera Cioclovina cu Apă, Peștera Lazului, Peștera Liliecilor-Carașova ( Negrea et al. 1967); Peștera Meziad ( Willemsen & Thomassen 2009); Avenul Betfia, Canaraua Fetii, Peștera Tunel de la Hagieni, Peștera Gaura cu Muscă, Peștera Gaura Ungurului de la Pecinișca, Peștera Lazului, Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei, Somova ( Haelewaters et al. 2017; Sándor et al. 2018; McKee et al. 2019), host Mi. schreibersii . Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei ( Haelewaters et al. 2017; Sándor et al. 2018; McKee et al. 2019), host My. blythii . Peștera Gaura cu Muscă, Peștera Lazului ( Haelewaters et al. 2017; Sándor et al. 2018; McKee et al. 2019), host My. capaccinii . Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei ( Decu-Burghele 1962), host My. myotis . Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei ( Decu-Burghele 1962); Peștera Liliecilor de la Mănăstirea Bistrița, Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei ( Decu-Burghele 1963); Peștera Limanu ( Dumitrescu et al. 1965); Peștera Limanu, Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei, Peștera Sineșii ( Burghele-Bălăcescu 1966), host unknown. Location unknown, host R. ferrumequinum ( Blackwell 1980) . Peștera Topolnița ( Burghele-Bălăcescu 1966), host R. hipposideros . Canaraua Fetii ( Haelewaters et al. 2017, Sándor et al. 2018, McKee et al. 2019), host R. mehelyi .

Material examined. Avenul Betfia, 07.05.2019, 3 females, 3 males; 07.09.2019, 10 females, 7 males ; Bonțida, 20.10.2017, 1 female; Canaraua Fetii, 30.04.2017, 3 females, 2 males; 22.05.2017, 1 female ; 02.08.2018, 5 females, 2 males; 27.04.2019, 1 female; 21.09.2019, 10 females, 13 males; 21.04.2020, 1 female; Peștera Tunel de la Hagieni, 27.05.2019, 11 females, 5 males; 20.09.2019, 15 females, 17 males ; Mocrea, 08.05.2019, 5 females, 2 males; 08.09.2019, 14 females, 8 males ; 16.10.2019, 21 females, 20 males; 18.09.2020, 14 females, 9 males; Peștera Gaura cu Muscă, 08.05.2017, 6 females, 1 male; Peștera Gaura Ungurului de la Pecinișca, 05.09.2017, 1 male; Peștera Măgurici, 02.05.2017, 1 female, 8 males; Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei, 19.04.2017, 8 females, 2 males; 24.04.2019, 5 females, 4 males ; Peștera Lócsűr (Cheile Vârghișului), 23.08.2018, 2 females; Sasca Montană, 04.09.2017, 8 females, 3 males; Somova, 18.09.2019, 2 females, 1 male; Țifra, 28.04.2020, 1 female, 2 males, host Mi. schreibersii . Peștera Liliecilor de la Gura Dobrogei, 24.04.2019, 1 male; Somova, 18.09.2019, 1 female, host My. daubentonii . Sasca Montană, 04.05.2017, 1 male, host R. euryale .

Distribution. A relatively common nycteribiid species with a southerly distribution, mainly in the Balkans, Apennines and Iberian Peninsula, with scattered records in Central Europe ( Szentiványi et al. 2016) and common also in Africa. In Romania it has been recorded all over the country, with 25 distinct geographical records altogether.

Remarks. One of the typical ectoparasites of Mi. schreibersii in Europe and North Africa and other Miniopterus spp. in Africa, also collected from other cave-dwelling species present in the same roosts as its primary hosts. Here, we report two new host-parasite relationships for this species, which to our knowledge had never been recorded from My. daubentonii and R. mehelyi ( Szentiványi et al. 2016) .