Greenhead horse fly
The greenhead horse fly is a horse fly with big shiny green eyes. It is about as big as a house fly, smaller than most horse flies. It lives by salty marshes on the east coast of the United States, and the girls are famous for their painful bites.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It does not poke like a mosquito. It cuts the skin with mouthparts like tiny scissors and then drinks.
A female can lay about 100 to 200 eggs after each blood meal.
Its larvae live in the muddy marsh for one or two years before they turn into flies.
People put up special black box traps in the marshes to catch them.
They are most common from late June to August.
Most asked questions about Greenhead horse fly
?Do greenhead flies bite?
Yes, the females do. Their bites hurt and itch more than mosquito bites.
?Why do greenheads bite?
The female needs blood to make more eggs. The males do not bite.
?When are greenhead flies worst?
From late June to August, near salt marshes on the east coast of the United States.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tabanus nigrovittatus
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Tabanidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Tabanidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Salt marsh greenhead, Greenhead fly, Greenhead, Greenfly
Where the facts come from
- Tabanus nigrovittatus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Maximilian Paradiz from Merida, Mexico. CC BY 2.0, 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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