Other Biting Flies
Horse-flies, Tsetse-flies, House-flies
and Stable-flies
Family: Tabanidae
(Horse-flies and Deer-flies)
• Tabanus atratus
• Tabanus nigrovittatus
• Chrysops atlanticus
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Large biting flies (65 mm wing)
Over 4300 species
Worldwide distribution.
Medium to large (6-30 mm)
Antennae are small but stout
Mouthparts adapted for biting,
hang downwards from head.
Life History
• Tend to lay eggs near larvarial substrate.
• Some larvae are predacious
• Life cycle
– Eggs  Larvae  Pupae  Adult
– Most inhabit woods and forest
Feeding Habits
• Bite is painful
• Most feed during the daytime, locate host by site and
CO2.
• Several small meals often taken from the same or
different host.
• Interrupted feeding behavior increases their likelihood of
being mechanical vectors of disease.
• Prefer dark objects, will bite through colored clothing.
Biological Transmission
• Loiasis (loa loa)
• Chrysops species are the biological vectors.
– Microfilaria picked up in blood during day.
– Develop in thoracic fat bodies of the deer fly.
– Worms leave the proboscis when deer fly
feeds.
• Human strain of Loiasis
• Monkey strain of Loiasis
Biological Transmission
• Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
• Tularaemia – from rabbits, horses and other rodents to
humans.
• Tabanids can transmit viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and
filarial worms to livestock
• Also big pest nuisance.
• Some people develop allergic reaction.
• Control: Insect repellents.
Family: Glossinidae
(Tsetse-flies)
• Restricted to sub-Saharan
Africa.
• Vector:
• Parasite:
• Reservoir:
Life History
• Egg  Larvae  Pupae  Adult
– Egg completes maturation in ovary
– Larvae goes through 3 instars in the female
– Larviposition in shaded areas.
– Larvae bury itself in soil and pupates.
– Pupal stage is long.
• Adults spend day resting on vegitation or dark humid
sites. (Twigs, branches, tree trunks)
Feeding Habits
• Both male and females blood feed on humans, wild and
domesticated animals, as well as reptiles and amphibians.
• Feed in dry-hot weather, cooler weather they feed every
10 days.
• Vision is important in host location.
• Females must take several bloodmeals to feed larvae.
• Many species rarely feed on people.
Medical Importance
• “African Sleeping Sickness”
• 400,000 cases a year with 55,000 deaths.
Control
Most control aimed at adults.
- Clearing away vegetation (resting sites)
- Kill of game animals (reservoir), no longer acceptable!
- Insecticides
- Targets and traps
- Genetic
Personal protection.
“The Higher Diptera”
• Suborder Cyclorrhapha:
– Larvae are maggots or grubs (no distinct head
capsule)
– Pupa is encased in final larval stage called puparium
• Families:
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Muscidae
Calliphoridae
Sarcophagidae
Cuterebridae
Oestridae
“The Higher Diptera”
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Importance:
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(1) Annoyance
(2) Disease Transmission
(3) Myiasis
(1) Annoyance
• Synanthropic
• Various species:
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Musca domestica
Fannia canicularis
Musca stabulans
Stomoxys calcitrans
• Several generations each year!
(2) Transmit Pathogens
• Diseases transmitted mechanically.
• Pathogens of bacillary dysentery:
– Shigella and Salmonella
– Vomit on food when feeding
• Look at a fly close up:
– Lots of hairs
– Sticky pads
Family: Muscidae
(House-flies and Stable-flies)
• Musca domestica
• Mechanical
transmission of
pathogens, accidental
myiasis.
• Stomoxys calcitrans
• biting pest (human and
veterinary pest)
House-Flies
•Non-biting mouthparts
House Fly
• Can transmit a large number of diseases to humans.
• Over 100 different pathogens have been recorded from house flies,
65 of them are transmitted!
• Some diseases they can transmit:
– Viruses: Polio, coxsackie, and infectious hepatitis
– Rickettsiae: Q fever
– Bacteria: anthrax, cholera, shigella and salmonella species, E. coli,
staph. Aureus, trachoma, spirochaetes of yaws.
– Protozoans: Entamoeba, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia.
– Helminths: various eggs; Ascaris, tapes, Trichuris
– Dermatobia hominis: a myiasis-producing fly.
Life Cycle
• Egg  Larvae  Pupa 
Adult.
• This life cycle is typical of
other muscid and calliphorid
flies.
• Seasonal abundance of
house flies
House Fly Control
(1)
Physical and Mechanical Control
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Screening windows, openings, air vents, etc.
Air barriers (doorways)
Sticky tapes (fly-papers)
(2) Environmental Sanitation
Reduce breeding places (garbage and refuse removal)
(3) Insecticide Control
Larvicides
Spraying against adults
Residual spraying
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Insecticidal cords
Toxic baits
Stable-Flies
• Both male and females take
blood meals from wild and
domestic animals.
• Not known to transmit any
diseases to humans –
annoyance to animals and man.
• Get rid of manure, spray
breeding places with
insecticides, fly strips.
Biting
mouthparts
Important Fly Pests of Humans and
Animals in North America