Tsetse fly
The tsetse fly is a large fly from Africa that drinks blood. When it rests, it folds one wing exactly on top of the other. It has a long, thin mouth that points straight forward like a little spear.
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Fun facts
A mother tsetse grows only one baby at a time inside her body and feeds it with a kind of milk.
The baby crawls into the ground right after it is born and turns into a hard little case to grow into a fly.
Fossil tsetse flies have been found in rocks in the United States and Germany, far from where they live today.
Most asked questions about Tsetse fly
?Where do tsetse flies live?
In much of tropical Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula.
?How big is a tsetse fly?
About 5 to 15 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Glossina
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Glossinidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Glossinidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- Tik-tik fly
Where the facts come from
- Tsetse fly (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 Alan R Walker. 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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