Pics and Notes for Episode 18: Black Flies
Jan 1, 2018
Sorry, I don't have a lot of eye candy for this particular episode. I've tried to get a picture of an adult black fly while it was biting me, but honestly, they always seem to bite me in a spot that is non-conducive to one handed photos.
But I have a few pics of larvae:
Note the bulbous end, which is attached, to the substrate.
Selene posted a nice video of a black fly moving - so you can see the leach like method. They attach their front, then move their rear and re-attach. It is about half way down the page:
https://selenedumaine.com/anglers-entomology/
Next - check out his photo - all those black marks on my hand are black fly larvae. This is just from picking up a rock and what happened to stick to my hand. The larger spots are dozens of black fly larvae.
Yep, there is a reason why the black fly is the Maine state bird.
Well, my only last thing to post is a link to Jimmy Carter's Onchocerciasis program. Helping to control river blindness might be a nice way to start 2018.
https://www.cartercenter.org/health/river_blindness/
Hope you all have a wonderful 2018 and I'm looking forward to posting more episodes. Please keep the reviews coming and feel free to shoot me a question or two: anglersent@gmail.com