# For those that doubt the existence of Mooseflies..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-doubt-the-existence-of-mooseflies/458732 "2008-08-03T20:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-doubt-the-existence-of-mooseflies/458732/1 "2008-08-03T20:04:06Z")
Up here in Southeastern Maine, we have a panoply of annoying biting insects , the black fly, mosquito, tick, deerfly, horsefly/greenhead, and the grandaddy of them all, the _MOOSEFLY_ Take a Horsefly, and double to triple it’s size, it’s one _big_ biting insect, thank Og it only feeds on moose (mooses, meese?), and it’s bite produces large, painful welts, if it fed on humans, it could easily remove a finger, and a small group of them, working together could carry off small pets or infants… anyway, the moosefly isn’t all that common in residential areas, it’s more commonly found in the woods, if at all, human-moosefly encounters are rare which makes it all the more unusual that I not only encountered one of these [vicious, bloodthirsty parasites](http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/Moosefly.jpg) on [one of our shrubberies](http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/Moosefly1.jpg), but it was also [cooperative enough](http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/Moosefly2.jpg) to let me [photograph it](http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/Moosefly3.jpg) to give you an idea of scale, the flower that the moosefly is sitting on is about five inches in diameter fully opened ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-doubt-the-existence-of-mooseflies/458732/2 "2008-08-03T20:23:31Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] Take a Horsefly, and double to triple it’s size, it’s one _big_ biting insect, thank Og it only feeds on moose (mooses, meese?), and it’s bite produces large, painful welts, if it fed on humans, it could easily remove a finger, and a small group of them, working together could carry off small pets or infants… [/QUOTE] Yep, _Tabanus affinis_. I’ve been the victim of its close cousin in the CA desert, the aptly named [_Tabanus punctifer_](http://images.whatsthatbug.com/images/western_horsefly_female.jpg). Hurt’s like a sonafabitch - one of the few insects that makes me duck in alarm . I find them far more threatening than most wasps or bees, as they are actively hunting YOU. And the little fuckers can actually draw blood. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-those-that-doubt-the-existence-of-mooseflies/458732/3 "2008-08-03T21:33:02Z")
Well, OK, but I ain’t never seen an elephant fly.