Tabanus bovinus

Taxobox | name = "Tabanus bovinus"

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Adult female
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Hexapoda
classis = Insecta
subclassis = Pterygota
infraclassis = Neoptera
superordo = Endopterygota|
ordo = Diptera
subordo = Brachycera
infraordo = Tabanomorpha
superfamilia = Tabanoidea
familia = Tabanidae
subfamilia = Tabaninae
tribus = Tabanini
genus = "Tabanus"
species = "T. bovinus"
species_authority = Linnaeus, 1758
binomial = "Tabanus bovinus"

"Tabanus bovinus", sometimes called the Pale Giant Horsefly, is a species of biting horseflies. As the name suggests, it prefers bovine animals as the source of blood, although it may bite other kind of mammals as well. The insect is relatively large for a horsefly, adults usually being 25–30 mm long. Like most other horseflies, its compound eyes are very colorful with stripe-like patterns. Its body and wings are mostly colored brownish gray. It is quite fast and able flier, being capable of evading most attempts to swat it with ease. It bites humans infrequently, because of its preference of bovine animals. This loud-buzzing horsefly can be a nuisance, as it circles around its target and occasionally lands to deliver a bite (in the case of humans, the fly usually takes off again instead). However, to humans it is considerably less harmful than deer flies ("Chrysops"), which bite much more vigorously.

There are no commercially available insect repellents that fully work against this horsefly, however it usually avoids smoke and exhaust gases. Weather has a great effect on the horseflies' behavior, as they only fly on sunny and hot weather.

Like all Horsefly species, it is only the females that require a blood meal, this is in order to provide sufficient protein to produce eggs. Males do not bite and tend to prefer the cover of woodland, where they are territorial. [cite book|author=Stubbs, A. and Drake, M.|year=2001 |title=British Soldierflies and Their Allies: A Field Guide to the Larger British Brachycera|pages=512 pp|publisher=British Entomological & Natural History Society |language=English|isbn=1899935045]

ee also

List of soldierflies and allies recorded in Britain

References