''Haematopota pluvialis'', the common horse fly or notch-horned cleg fly, or simply cleg in Scotland and northern parts of Ireland, is a species belonging to the family

Tabanidae Horse-flies or horseflies are true flies in the family Tabanidae in the insect order Diptera. They are often large and agile in flight, and only the female horseflies bite animals, including humans, to obtain blood. They prefer to fly in s ...

subfamily

Tabaninae Tabaninae is a subfamily of horse flies in the family Horse-fly, Tabanidae. There are more than 3000 described species in Tabaninae. Tribes and genera Diachlorini *''Acanthocera'' Pierre-Justin-Marie Macquart, Macquart, 1834 *''Acellomyia'' Go ...

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

, and in the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

. It mainly lies in heath and moorland, and in spruce forest edge.

Description

''Haematopota pluvialis'' can reach a length of , with a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of 8–10 mm.Commanster
/ref> This species has large compound eyes necessary for locating its prey. They are hairy and brightly colored, with stripes extended over most of the eye. In the males eyes do touch in the centre of the frons and the colored stripes are restricted to the lower part.Nature Spot
/ref> The first antennal segment is quite bulbous and has a strong sub-apical notch in the female. The thorax is grey, with black longitudinal stripes. The abdomen shows a dark background with a series of lateral pale spots and clearer bands at the end of each black segment. Also the wings have a distinctive pattern, being dark mottled by several clear spots. The legs are black, with yellowish-brown rings.
/ref> This species is similar to the also common '' Haematopota crassicornis'', but differs from that species in the orange third antennal segment, in the presence of the sub-apical notch and in the overall brown colouration compared to the often grey tinge of ''crassicornis''.

Biology

These horse flies can be encountered during the daylight hours from late May through late October. The males are harmless and feed on nectar, while the females feed on mammal blood (

hematophagy Hematophagy (sometimes spelled haematophagy or hematophagia) is the practice by certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words αἷμα ' "blood" and φαγεῖν ' "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious pro ...

) (hence the Latin name ''Haematopota pluvialis'', literally meaning 'blooddrinker of the rains'), mainly cattle and horses, needing blood for developing eggs. When they bite they inject fluids inhibiting the coagulation of blood, which flows out in such a way that allows the horsefly to lap it. They are also able to bite humans painfully. Females lay their eggs at the base of grass-stems or on the surface of moist soil.

Gallery

File:Haematopota pluvialis (Diptera sp.), Giethoorn, the Netherlands.jpg, Female File:Haematopota pluvialis01.jpg, Male, with its characteristic eyes File: Tabanidae - Haematopota pluvialis-001.JPG, The separated female eyes File:Haematopota.pluvialis.wing.detail.jpg, Wing detail

Bibliography

* Brightwell, R. & Dransfield, R.D. (2014)
Survey of Tabanidae (horseflies) in southern England 2014. A preliminary survey of tabanids using odour-baited NG2F traps.
14 pp. * Burgess, N.R.H. et al. (1978). The immature stages of the common cleg Haematopota pluvialis L. (Diptera: Tabanidae). J. roy. Army med. Cps. 124, 27-30. * Cameron, A.E. (1930). Oviposition of Haematopota pluvialis Linne. Nature 126, 601-602. * Grayson, A. (2001). Notes on the behaviour of males of Haematopota crassicornis Wahlberg and Haematopota pluvialis (Linnaeus). Larger Brachycera Recording Scheme Newsletter 19. * Kniepert, F.W. (1980)
Blood-feeding and nectar-feeding in adult Tabanidae (Diptera).
Oecologia 46, 125-129. * Krčmar, S. (2004). Ecological notes on Tabanus bromius L., and Haematopota pluvialis (L.), (Diptera: Tabanidae) of some flood areas in Croatian sections of the river Danube. Journal of Vector Ecology 29(2), 376-378. * Krčmar, S. et al. (2006)
Response of Tabanidae (Diptera) to different natural attractants.
Journal of Vector Ecology 31(2), 262-265. Full text * Liebisch, A.(1987). Vector Biology of Flies on Grazing Cattle in Germany. Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science 45, 109-115. * Titchener, R.N. et al. (1981)
Flies associated with cattle in south west Scotland during the summer months.
Researches in Veterinary Science 30 (1), 109-113. *Ross, H.C.G. 1978 - A note on the hovering behaviour of Haematopota pluvialis (Linne, 1758) (Diptera:Tabanidae) Entomologist’s Gazttte 28:267-268 *Stone, A.L. and Philip, B., 1974 - The Oriental Species of the Tribe Haematopotini (Diptera, Tabanidae), United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service - Technical Bulletin, 1489 - Washington D.C.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q939493 Tabanidae Flies described in 1758 Diptera of Europe Articles containing video clips Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus