Summary[edit] Description: Walon: waerbeas souwés-evoye dins l' coir, 8 djoûs après ene pikeure d' ivermectene, 15 µg/kg (13 côps moens ki l' dôzaedje normå) English: larvae of Hypoderma, killed in vivo 8 days after injection of ivermectine 15 µg/kg (13 times less than normal dosage). Date: 5 February 2009, 11:00:43. Source: Own work. Author: Lucyin.
Description: Extracted human botfly larva - Lima, Peru The orange puffs visible at the head end are accessories to the anterior spiracles, which are visible right before pupation--This guy almost made it all the way!. Date: 20 September 2013, 19:14. Source: Human botfly. Author: Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA.
Centers for Disease Control/Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria
EOL staff
Generalized life cycle of flies causing myiasis in humans based on Human Bot Fly (click on image for description of variations)Adults of the Human Bot Fly Dermatobia hominis are free-living flies (1). Adults capture blood-sucking arthropods (such as mosquitoes) and lay eggs on their bodies, using a glue-like substance for adherence (2). Bot fly larvae develop within the eggs, but remain on the vector until it takes a blood meal from a mammalian or avian host. Newly-emerged bot fly larvae then penetrate the host's tissue (3). The larvae feed in a subdermal cavity (4) for 5-10 weeks, breathing through a hole in the host's skin. Mature larvae drop to the ground (5) and pupate in the environment. Larvae tend to leave their host during the night and early morning, probably to avoid desiccation. After approximately one month, the adults emerge (6) to mate and repeat the cycle. Other genera of myiasis-causing flies (including Cochliomyia, Cuterebra, and Wohlfahrtia) have a more direct life cycle, where the adult flies lay their eggs directly in, or in the vicinity of, wounds on the host (7). In Cochliomyia and Wohlfahrtia infestations, larvae feed in the host for about a week, and may migrate from the subdermis to other tissues in the body, often causing extreme damage in the process.From Centers for Disease Control Parasites and Health website
Early morning on the little mangrove beach, flies gather on leaves to watch the sunrise. Maybe they spend the nights there. It's not a matter of warmth as the air is already 84 degrees F. About 30 minutes after sunrise, they fly away to forage nectar and scan the beaches for dead fish. This colorful fly is an exotic species that has been extending it's range into Florida, California and other warm weather states. It's two good qualities are that it is an excellent pollinator of mango trees (and, based upon my observations, several other plants) and it's useful in forensic entomology (think Gil Grissom on CSI). It has very uncomplimentary common names.