Bug card No. 0383 of 1,500
Dark giant horsefly
Tabanus sudeticus
The dark giant horsefly is a big, dark fly with yellow triangles on its back end. It is the heaviest fly in Europe. You often hear it before you see it, because it buzzes very loudly.
Lives in
Western and northern Europe, around fields where cows and horses graze
Length
2 to 2.5 cm (0.79 to 0.98 in)
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
It can bite, but it usually leaves people alone and goes for horses and cows instead.
What does it eat?
It drinks the blood of horses and cows.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 4 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 13 seconds⚡moves 320 times its own body length every second
How big is Dark giant horsefly compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Dark giant horsefly about 29 km/h (18 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is the heaviest fly in all of Europe.
2
Its big eyes are all one dark brown colour, without stripes or patterns.
3
It lives as far north as southern Norway and the islands of western Scotland.
you asked
Most asked questions about Dark giant horsefly
?Does the dark giant horsefly bite people?
It usually avoids people and bites horses and cows instead.
?How big is the dark giant horsefly?
It is about 2 to 2.5 centimetres long, the heaviest fly in Europe.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tabanus sudeticus
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Tabanidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Tabanidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Tabanus sudeticus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Kulac. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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