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[25] [26] These flies have complex cutting mouthparts that make a superficial wound in skin. Blood flowing into the wound is sponged up by the labella organ of the mouthparts (see photograph of Tabanus mouthparts). The flies tend to take small meals from many hosts at short intervals, to avoid the defensive actions of their hosts.
Some moths do not feed after emerging from the pupa, and have greatly reduced, vestigial mouthparts or none at all. All but a few adult Lepidoptera lack mandibles (the superfamily known as the mandibulate moths have fully developed mandibles as adults), but also have the remaining mouthparts in the form of an elongated sucking tube, the proboscis.
The flies are pool feeders. Their saliva, which contains anticoagulants, a number of enzymes and histamine, is mixed with the blood, preventing clotting until it is ingested by the fly. These bites cause localized tissue damage, and if the number of feeding flies is sufficient, their feeding may produce a blood-loss anaemia.
They have also been found on smaller mammals such as dogs, cats, squirrels, voles and rabbits. Adult warble flies are large, hairy and bumblebee-like and brown, orange or yellow in color. The adults have vestigial mouthparts, so they cannot feed during their short lifespans, which can be as little as five days. [2]
Haematobia irritans, the horn fly, is a small fly (about half the size of a common housefly). It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae . It is of the genus Haematobia which is the European genus of bloodsucking flies.
The larvae of the green bottle fly (Lucilia fly) are now used exclusively for this purpose, since they preferentially devour only necrotic tissue, leaving healthy tissue intact. This is an important distinction, as most other major varieties of myiasitic fly larvae attack both live and dead wound tissue indiscriminately, effectively negating ...
Adult horse-flies feed on nectar and plant exudates; males have weak mouthparts, but females have mouthparts strong enough to bite large animals. This is for the purpose of obtaining enough protein from blood to produce eggs. The mouthparts of females are formed into a stout stabbing organ with two pairs of sharp cutting blades, and a ...
A few Lepidoptera species have reduced mouthparts and do not feed in the adult state. Others, such as the basal family Micropterigidae, have chewing mouthparts. [21] The proboscis (plural – proboscises) is formed from maxillary galeae and is adapted for sucking nectar. [3] It consists of two tubes held together by hooks and separable for ...