Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Cuterebra emasculator - Squirrel bot fly

Representative Images

Syrphidae? - Cuterebra emasculator Bot Fly Larva - Cuterebra emasculator Bot Fly - Cuterebra emasculator Bot Fly - Cuterebra emasculator - male Bot Fly - Cuterebra emasculator Cuterebra sp.? - Cuterebra emasculator - female Immature Cuterebra - Cuterebra emasculator Squirrel Bot Fly at Camp Yawgoog - Cuterebra emasculator

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)
Genus Cuterebra (Rodent and Lagomorph Bot Flies)
No Taxon (fontinella group)
Species emasculator (Squirrel bot fly)

Explanation of Names

Originally the larvae were thought to eat the host's testicles.

Identification

Our only yellow rodent bot in the East. [comment by Jeff Boettner]

Food

Squirrels and chipmunks

Remarks

There may be two externally indistinguishable species combined under this name, one in chipmunks in the North and another in tree squirrels in the South.