Common horsefly
| Common horsefly | ||||||||||||
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Common gadfly ( Tabanus bromius ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tabanus bromius | ||||||||||||
| ( Scopoli , 1763) |
The Common Gadfly ( Tabanus bromius ) is a kind from the family of brakes (Tabanidae).
features
The flies reach a body length of 11.5 to 19.5 millimeters. The head is silver-gray, there is no hair on the edge of the back of the head. The upper forehead bulge is narrow, shiny black, and is connected to the lower. The compound eyes are green, about in the middle a purple-red band runs horizontally. The facets are about six times smaller in the lower third of the eyes than at the top. The palps are white and thickened like blisters. The antennae have a small corner on the third link near the base. The mesonotum is gray and has five indistinct longitudinal lines on the upper side. The holders are colored black-brown, the wings are transparent and have brown veins. The abdomen is black and has three rows of yellowish hairy spots, yellow edges and oblique spots on a reddish background. The ventral side of the abdomen is light gray. In the females, the second to fourth tergites are more red-yellow in color than in the males and the forehead between the eyes is four to five times higher than it is wide. The lower facial callus is elongated, square and shiny black.
Occurrence and way of life
The species occurs in North Africa , Europe and Central Asia . You can find them from May to September on pastures and often in buildings. The female adults feed as bloodsuckers, the males suck plant juices.
swell
literature
- Gerald Bothe: Hoverflies. German Youth Association for Nature Observation, Hamburg 1996.
- Joachim & Hiroko Haupt: Flies and mosquitoes: observation, way of life. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89440-278-4 .
