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Subfamily Cuterebrinae - New World Skin Bot Flies

Bot bolt upright - Cuterebra americana Big Fly - Cuterebra tenebrosa Cuterebra fontinella - female Oestridae 8-19-11 01a - Cuterebra tenebrosa Cuterebra buccata Cuterebra Cuterebra - Cuterebra fontinella Cuterebra bot fly - Cuterebra
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Calyptratae)
Superfamily Oestroidea
Family Oestridae (Bot Flies)
Subfamily Cuterebrinae (New World Skin Bot Flies)
Numbers
26 spp. in a single genus in our area(1), >80 spp. (all but one in Cuterebra) in 2 genera total(2)(3)
Size
at up to 30 mm, Cuterebra are the largest bot flies(2)
Range
precinctive to the New World(2)
Food
hosts of the Cuterebra are rodents and rabbits; among the neotropical forms, Dermatobia hominis (a.k.a. Human Bot Fly, American Warble Fly, Tórsalo) parasitize a wide variety of mammals (mainly livestock, but also dogs, primates, incl. man, etc.), and C. (=Alouattamyia) baeri infests howler monkeys and is the only bot fly specific to a primate host(2)
Works Cited
1.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
2.Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Gary Mullen, Lance Durden. 2002. Academic Press.
3.Phylogeny and evolution of bot flies
T. Pape. 2006. In: The oestrid flies: Biology, host–parasite relationships, impact and management (D.D. Colwell et al., eds): 20-50.