Her mouthparts are rather like a Swiss Army knife, and she seems to use all the parts at once to get to the blood meal she needs. Like the male mosquito, the male horsefly doesn’t have biting mouthparts and is pleased to sip nectar and other plant liquids. Though the horsefly, like the mosquito, is one of those insect pests ripe for extermination, the extermination of such an abundant and tenacious species does not seem feasible at the moment.
The horsefly’s bite is not only painful but can spread diseases such as anthrax.
A horsefly larva has a siphon at the end of its body that allows it to breathe air if it lives in water.
The horsefly larva also bites, hard.
Horseflies only bite during the day and especially on days that are calm and sunny.
The horsefly is the fastest flying insect, and the fastest horsefly on record was clocked at 90 miles per hour.
Horseflies are what are called “true flies.” That means they only have one pair of wings and have balancing halteres right behind the base of their wings. Halteres are a reason that horseflies can be rather acrobatic in flight.