Big Weird Fly - Cuterebra fontinella

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Calyptratae » Oestroidea » Bot Flies (Oestridae) » New World Skin Bot Flies (Cuterebrinae) » Rodent and Lagomorph Bot Flies (Cuterebra) » fontinella group (Cuterebra fontinella group) » Mouse Bot Fly (Cuterebra fontinella) » Cuterebra fontinella fontinella

Photo#28110

Copyright © 2005 Kyle Pias

Big Weird Fly - Cuterebra fontinella

Waterford, New London County, Connecticut, USA
August 12, 2005
Size: 1 in

I found this fly lying on its back wiggling its legs on my driveway in the middle of the day. When I flipped it over, it flew briefly like a hover fly before crashing into the driveway again. I picked it up and photographed it. It struck me that it seems to lack any apparent mouthparts that woulud have easily classified it as a horse or deer fly. Also the vestigial looking second set of wings was unusual. Im stumped as to anything past order (Diptera I assume, unless its a really weird looking type of bee), so any help is appreciated

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Contributed by Kyle Pias on 13 August, 2005 - 12:40am
Last updated 20 June, 2009 - 6:27pm

Moved

Moved from Cuterebra fontinella.

… Charley Eiseman, 20 June, 2009 - 6:27pm

Moved

Moved from Cuterebra.

… Robin McLeod, 17 April, 2009 - 10:10pm

Cuterebra fontinella fontinella

Great shots. This is Cuterebra fontinella (subspecies fontinella). One of two species of rodent bots in CT. The other species in CT. is much less common and uses chipmunks as a host, but that species has yellow hairs on the back. Nice that you got shots from multiple sides. The white last tergite (ie butt!) and dark eyes, and location, help ID this species. Your species only uses white footed mice, (Peromyscus leucopus), as a host. In some years is quite numerous, although adults are rarely seen. Adults have no mouth parts and so they have to store up all their energy as a maggot. Therefore adults only live for 1-2 weeks depending on how much energy they burn. You would see the larvae in mice in late Aug-Oct in CT. Eggs are laid in mouse runways and picked up by the mice on their fur.

… George "Jeff" Boettner, 17 April, 2009 - 2:17pm

Moved

Moved from Bot Flies.

… Keith Bayless, 20 February, 2007 - 8:48pm

Bot Fly

More in the guide here

… Gerry Bunker, 13 August, 2005 - 12:51am

Thanks a lot, didnt know botf

Thanks a lot, didnt know botflies lived this far north, kinda creepy...

… Kyle Pias, 13 August, 2005 - 1:50am

crop image

It would help a lot if you cropped these images to show less background and more fly. Thanks.

… Robin McLeod, 13 August, 2005 - 9:31am

thanks for the tip

Thank you for that, Ill remember that in the future

… Kyle Pias, 13 August, 2005 - 11:48am

I can do it now

with these images, if you like. It's just a matter of cropping, resaving as the same name, and reposting, overwriting the original. It would be nice if the fly filled the frame...

… Robin McLeod, 13 August, 2005 - 12:30pm

Hope this is better, lost a b

Hope this is better, lost a bit of quality, but thats expected, really wish I had one of the setups that produces ultra-crisp macro shots, but this'll have to do

… Kyle Pias, 14 August, 2005 - 1:58am

Thanks

That's much better!

… Robin McLeod, 14 August, 2005 - 10:50am

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