The name deer botfly refers to any species in the genus Cephenemyia, within the family Oestridae. They are large, gray-brown flies, often very accurate mimics of bumblebee

Bumblebee

A bumble bee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere although they are common in New Zealand and in the Australian state of Tasmania.Bumble bees are social insects that are characterised by black...

s. They attack chiefly the nostrils and pharyngeal cavity of members of the deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 family. The larva of Cephenemyia auribarbis, infesting the stag, is called a stagworm. The genus name, also spelled Cephenomyia, comes from the Greek kēphēn, drone bee, and myia, fly.

Description

The larval stages of Cephenemyia are obligate parasites of cervids. Eggs hatch in the uterus of the female. She then flies close to the head of her host species and while hovering ejects her larvae into its nostrils. Larvae migrate to the base of the animal's tongue, where they mature in clusters to a size of 25 to 36 mm. After being ejected by the host, they pupate in soil (2 to 3 weeks) before emerging as a sexually-mature but non-feeding adult, which must quickly find a mate, since its life is short.

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 (384 BC – 322 BC) described deer botfly larvae

Larvae

In Roman mythology, lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening...

  as follows:

However, without any exception, stags are found to have maggots living inside the head, and the habitat of these creatures is in the hollow underneath the root of the tongue and in the neighbourhood of the vertebra to which the head is attached. These creatures are as large as the largest grubs; they grow all together in a cluster, and they are usually about twenty in number.

Distribution

Species found in the United States include ‘‘C. apicata’‘, ‘‘C. jellisoni’‘, ‘‘C. phobifer’‘, ‘‘C. pratti’‘, and ‘‘C. trompe’‘.

In Scandinavia, the only species present are ‘‘C. trompe’‘ and ‘‘C. ulrichii. Other European species include ‘‘C. auribarbis’‘, ‘‘C. capreolus’‘, ‘‘C. elaphas’‘, ‘‘C. pratti’‘, and ‘‘C. stimulator’‘.

Fastest of all flying insects?

It was reported for many years that Cephenemyia was the fastest of all flying insects, cited by the New York Times and Guinness Book of World Records as traveling at speeds of over 800 miles per hour. The source of this remarkable claim was an article by entomologist Charles H. T. Townsend in the 1927 Journal of the New York Entomological Society, wherein Townsend claimed to have estimated a speed of 400 yards per second while observing Cephenemyia pratti at 12,000 feet in New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

.

In 1938 Irving Langmuir

Irving Langmuir

Irving Langmuir was an American chemist and physicist. His most noted publication was the famous 1919 article "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules" in which, building on Gilbert N. Lewis's cubical atom theory and Walther Kossel's chemical bonding theory, he outlined his...

, recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...

, examined the claim in detail and refuted the estimate. Among his specific criticisms were:

• To maintain a velocity of 800 miles per hour, the 0.3-gram fly would have had to consume more than 150% of its body weight in food every second;
• The fly would have produced an audible sonic boom
  Sonic boom
  A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
  
  ;
• The supersonic fly would have been invisible to the naked eye; and
• The impact trauma
  Physical trauma
  Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
  
   of such a fly colliding with a human body would resemble that of a gunshot wound

Using the original report as a basis, Langmuir estimated the deer botfly's true speed at 25 miles per hour.

The latest edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica cites a speed of 80 km (49.7 mi) per hour for this fly. Time magazine published an article in 1938 "debunking" Townsend's calculations. But the New York Times, which ran a story in 1937 on "the fastest creature that lives', has not yet published a correction.

External links

• Cephenemyia- Throat or nose bot. Northern Land Use Institute @ University of Northern British Columbia - Prince George, BC, Canada.
• DNR - Deer Nose Bots. State of Michigan, Department of Natural Resources.
• Nasal Bots in Deer: Harmless but Irritating. Nan K. Huff, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.