#botflies

(Cuterebra buccata, a gorgeous botfly which apparently parasitizes bunnies? So large I thought she was a cicada when I first sighted her!)

One can see how I initially took her for a cicada:

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TODAY'S FACT IS

Did you know that the Horse Botfly (Gasterophilus intestinalis) is a species of botfly that can be found worldwide? The adult flies lay their eggs on the forelimbs of horses, donkeys, and mules.

Ideally (for the fly) the eggs are licked up into the mouth, where they hatch and the larvae begin to develop in the tongue of its host. Once the larvae are ready to develop further, they migrate down the host's digestive tract and latch into the host's stomach and stay there for up to 10 months. They then pupate in the execrement of their host, before they pupate and become adults. The adults don't have functional mouth parts and therefore do not live for all that long.

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Cephenemyia ulrichii (the moose throat botfly) is the funniest insect alive to me and there is no competition because

This species will have the most innocent adorable kissable marketable appearance of any fly evolved, but then you look them up and they have blood curdling lore able to turn your stomach in a sense rivaling Nick Cutter’s novels. I couldn’t even keep it together trying to read up on their life cycle for the first time because of

1. How convolutely messed up of a parasitism method they chose to thrive by

2. The extremely stupid reason behind why they accidentally end up in humans and the horrific location where

3. The images-information whiplash happening in my head that I hope this editing gets across.

Zoology - Textbook for Schools. Edited by D. Naumov. 1985.

A Textbook in General Zoology. Written by Henry R. Linville, Henry A. Kelly, Harley J. Van Cleave. 1929.

what ecological niche do botflies serve? do they pollinate? what animals do they eat? what animals eat them?