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Sticker of Deer ked
Bug card No. 0393 of 1,500

Deer ked

Lipoptena cervi
Eats: It lives off other animalsFlies and mosquitoesForests and woods6 legs

The deer ked is a small, flat, brown fly that lives in the fur of moose and deer. It is a poor flier. Once it lands on a deer, it breaks off its own wings and stays there for the rest of its life, drinking blood.

Lives in
Most of Europe, Siberia, northern China and Algeria, and now also the eastern United States, in forests
Length
5 to 7 mm (0.2 to 0.28 in)
Top speed
about 7.5 km/h (4.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
It sometimes bites people by mistake, and the bite can itch for weeks. If one gets in your hair, ask a grown-up to help take it off.
What does it eat?
It lives in the fur of moose, elk and deer and drinks their blood. Sometimes it lands on people or dogs by mistake.
For real!Photo of Deer ked
Picture by [J Roháček] Oboňa J, Sychra O, Greš S, Heřman P, Manko P, Roháček J, Šestáková A, Šlapák J, Hromada M (2019) A revised annotated checklist of louse flies (Dipte. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Deer ked about 7 mm long (0.28 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 50 secondsmoves 300 times its own body length every second

How big is Deer ked compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its body is flat and stretchy, so it is very hard to pull off.

2

The mother does not lay eggs. She grows one baby at a time inside her body and feeds it with a kind of milk.

3

Deer keds were found on Ötzi, the Stone Age Iceman found frozen in a glacier in the Alps.

4

It came to Finland from Russia in the 1960s and now lives mostly on moose.

5

A bite may not be felt at first, but a hard red itchy bump can appear a few days later.

you asked

Most asked questions about Deer ked

?Does the deer ked bite humans?

Rarely. It lives on deer, but it sometimes bites people by mistake, and the bite can itch for a long time.

?Why does the deer ked lose its wings?

Once it finds a deer, it breaks off its wings because it will stay in the fur for the rest of its life.

?Where do deer keds live?

In forests where deer and moose live, in Europe, Asia and parts of North America.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lipoptena cervi
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Hippoboscidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Hippoboscidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America
Also known as
Deer fly

Where the facts come from

  1. Lipoptena cervi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by [J Roháček] Oboňa J, Sychra O, Greš S, Heřman P, Manko P, Roháček J, Šestáková A, Šlapák J, Hromada M (2019) A revised annotated checklist of louse flies (Dipte. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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