Large, agile flies, including horse flies and deer flies. Adults feed on nectar, but females also bite land animals, including people, for the blood protein they need to make eggs. They fly in sunshine and are inactive at night. Their larvae are predators in wet ground.
Quick answers
What is it?Insect
Carnivore?Omnivore
Dangerous?Can be
Bites can hurt for a day or more, and females can spread blood-borne diseases between animals.
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Daytime
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?No
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
ColoursBlack, Brown, Green
SizeTiny
LengthMostly 5–25 mm
Legs6
Covered inExoskeleton
Lives alone
Lives for1–2 months
Can fly
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Worldwide except some islands and polar regions, such as Hawaii, Greenland and Iceland.
- What it eats
- Adults: nectar and plant juices, plus blood for females. Larvae: small animals in damp soil.
Did you know
Cuts the skin open with blade-like mouthparts rather than piercing it, which is why it hurts.
Contrary to popular belief, horse flies cannot see infrared light or sense heat at a distance.
Females find hosts partly by the polarisation of light reflected from them.
Often confused with
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