Sunday, September 2, 2007

08.26.07 FLYING SCIMITARS


This horsefly has just landed on my rearview mirror. Living in the country surrounded by cattle and horses means we are in the perfect environment for this huge fly. Eating nectar and pollen, they become a "threat" to humans when the female needs a "blood meal" to prepare for reproduction. In this photo you can see what Wikipedia calls a horsefly's "mandibles like tiny serrated scimitars." These are used to painfully carve out a hole in an animal's flesh so that it may then lick up the resulting blood. How delightful!

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