March flies
Horse flies, Green heads
Click to enlarge image
© Bruce Hulbert
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Family
- Tabanidae
- Super Family
- Tabanomorpha
- Order
- Diptera
- Class
- Insecta
- Subphylum
- Uniramia
- Phylum
- Arthopoda
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Size Range
- 3 cm
Introduction
March flies are ferocious biters.
Habitat
March flies live around freshwater creeks, intertidal estuaries and mangroves.
Distribution
March flies are found throughout Australia.
Feeding and diet
As with most biting flies, it is only the female march flies that bite as they need blood to produce the next generation. They use their strong, piercing mouthparts like a needle to extract blood from their mammal hosts. The males have larger metallic green eyes and feed on nectar.
The maggot larvae are quite aggressive and efficient predators too. They have sharp mandibles (mouthparts) and inject their prey with venom. The venom immobilises the prey almost instantly and helps to liquefy the tissues, which are then sucked out, leaving just an empty skin. The prey is usually the larvae of other insects, however they are also known to be cannibalistic. March fly larvae can bite if handled.
