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Horse flies and deer flies [a] are true flies in the family Tabanidae in the insect order Diptera. The adults are often large and agile in flight. Only females bite land vertebrates, including humans, to obtain blood. They prefer to fly in sunlight, avoiding dark and shady areas, and are inactive at night.
These horse flies can be encountered during the daylight hours from late May through late October. [5] The males are harmless and feed on nectar, [7] while the females feed on mammal blood (hematophagy) (hence the Latin name Haematopota pluvialis, literally meaning 'blooddrinker of the rains'), mainly cattle and horses, needing blood for developing eggs.
The body is black and the wings are transparent, with a small dark patch at the base of the vein R4. [7] [8] Face is black haired, with high antennal bows. Palpi are blackish with black hairs. The compound eyes are well-developed in both sexes. They have an iridescent light green pigmentation, with three blue-reddish transversal bands. [7] [8]
On the other end of the spectrum, horse flies and deer flies use "blade-like" mouthparts to slash the skin before eating the spilling blood, which causes large, painful bites, Frye says.
Black flies are very small, just a bit bigger than gnats, and tend to gather in swarms. Stable flies look a lot like a typical house fly, except they have a protruding mouthpart to feed on (mostly ...
Tabanus bovinus, sometimes called the pale giant horse-fly, is a species of biting horse-fly. [2] As the scientific name suggests, it prefers bovine animals as the source of blood, although it may bite other kind of mammals as well. The insect is relatively large for a horse-fly, adults usually being 25–30 mm long.
The thorax is covered with long hairs that give it a creamy white color, while the abdomen is completely black. [4] Much like other horse fly species, the Tabanus punctifer female requires a blood meal for the development of their eggs. [5] Females will bite horses, livestock, and humans, making them vectors of disease for pathogens and ...
A black fly or blackfly [1] (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 species of black flies have been formally named, of which 15 are extinct. [2]