was erroneously posted as being from Washington State - Tabanus laticornis

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Tabanomorpha » Horse and Deer Flies (Tabanidae) » Horse Flies (Tabaninae) » Tabanini » Tabanus » Tabanus laticornis

Photo#1641946

Copyright © 2019 Creative Commons. URL: http://amazingnature.us/

was erroneously posted as being from Washington State - Tabanus laticornis -

Bringham City Bear River Migratory Bird Reserve, Utah, USA
July 12, 2009

I've been trying to ID this horsefly for decades. (These are not my photos; they were uploaded under Creative Commons by a woman in Utah who was unable to ID the subject either. But this is either the exact fly we have here or closely related to it. Source: http://amazingnature.us/insects/greenhead_horse_fly.html#tabanus; home page with copyright declaration: http://amazingnature.us/.)

As far as I know, these are riverine creatures. I've encountered them on the Solduc, Quinault, and Willapa rivers, and on roads in rural Thurston County that run along the Deschutes.

Generally more colourful than these photos suggest; they have a powdery-fuzzy bright yellow thorax. (Some kind of pollen?) They become active when the weather is very hot, and are very persistent (read: annoying). They seem to be attracted to hot, sweaty skin.

Searches for "Washington State" and "horsefly" haven't cleared up the mystery. Lots of hits for the big black one, none for this brightly-coloured inhabitant of the river banks.

Tony-2 edited this post, changed "Washington State fly" to it's correct State

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Contributed by RK Henderson on 11 March, 2019 - 11:49pm
Last updated 29 September, 2021 - 2:17pm

Thank you!

These are actually my photos taken at Bear River MBR, 7-12-2009, and I really appreciate RK Henderson for posting these and subsequently finding out the species.

… Carol Davis, 29 September, 2021 - 1:56pm

Moved

Moved from Horse Flies.

… A.W. Thomas, 4 July, 2021 - 7:10am

Moved

Moved from Horse and Deer Flies.

… John S. Ascher, 22 June, 2019 - 1:01am

Please re-crop

Your images should not include any borders. After you re-crop your images, you can select "edit" and then browse to the new files, to replace these.
Is this your location and date or the exact location and date that these images are from? (Utah) It's important that this information should always be very accurate, when submitting images to the guide.
Is this more than one fly, filmed at different times? If so, they should be un-linked. You can add in thumbnail links to the text, to keep them associated.
You might want to just put her name into the copyright field, since we cannot control other websites. (Carol Davis 08/16/2015) - (July 12, 2009)
In Arizona, we have a species very similar to this:
Tabanus laticornis:

These are all pictures of females. Eye-gap = ♀

… Bob Biagi, 12 March, 2019 - 2:00pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 12 March, 2019 - 8:07am

I'll put it in Tabanidae wher

I'll put it in Tabanidae where Keith Bayless should see it. If anyone can ID it, he will.

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 12 March, 2019 - 8:07am

Horsefly ID

Thanks!

… RK Henderson, 12 March, 2019 - 1:18pm

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