blackfly

Small but stoutly built blood-sucking flies with short antennae. Blackflies have broad wings with all the obvious veins in the anterior part of the wing. The family is widely distributed, the adults often occurring in such large numbers as to make them a nuisance. They are most abundant in north temperate and subarctic regions.

Classification Blackflies are in family Simuliidae, order Diptera, class Insecta, phylum Arthropoda.

There are six larval stages that are found in running water, including cascades and waterfalls; they have a well capsulated head, a solitary thoracic proleg and a posterior sucker composed of small hooks by which they anchor themselves against the current. They are found on stones, reeds, mayfly larvae, and other aquatic forms. The pupae usually rest in a tent of silk in similar situations to the larvae.

Simulium species are the vectors of onchocerciasis in Central and South America, Africa, and the Yemen. They also transmit other filarial worms to cattle and to ducks. Blackflies are vectors of a large number of avian malarias to many birds including domestic stock, turkeys, ducks, and geese in North America and Canada. In addition, number of blackflies attacking livestock can be so great, and the attacks so fierce, as to kill the livestock, and human deaths have also occurred.