Large fly with very unusual eyes and elaborately marked wings

[Bruce Williams]

Stony Stratford, Bucks.

Frustrating as I only managed to get the one quick shot in before it flew. Help with identification and gender appreciated as always:



Bruce

[Geoff F]

That tends to remind me of one of the Horse Flies, Bruce.

Possibly one of the Haematopta species but I'm definitely not an expert on these and only have basic ID information on hand.

I did read up on them a while back but can't remember where!

[Anzu]

Maybe a male haematopota crassicornis, although I'm not 100% because I am not an expert!

[ladyhawk]

We call it a clegg, is one the Haematopota maybe pluvialis.
and can give you a very nasty bite but only the females

[Wild-Woman]

They may bite, but they sure are impressive looking.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your help and comments everyone.

Yes I thought it had the look of a horsefly but I've not seen one with eyes like this one. The whitish colour of its eyes were visually very obvious and I would say that the photo reproduces their odd colour fairly accurately.

With your help I've Googled Haematopota sp. and that does look right although I have not yet found a pic of a species with whitish eyes.

Bruce

[Dillybythesea]

Here's another, similar, which again caused surprise...
Horsefly (Haematopota sp.) #2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Gerel]

Hi Bruce,

I found one last year that was very similar in eye colour.



The area it was in is often seething with H. pluvialis so I assumed it might be a variation of that species. I do wonder though if the white eyes may be down to loss of pigment with age (just an un-substantiated hypothesis )

Steve

[Anomalous]

Haematopota pluvialis

I would say that both flies are H.pluvialis, as the wings are brown, rather than the greyer tone of H.crassicornis. Also, the discal cell has 4 bands of pale markings across it, which tends to less in crassicornis. The 3rd antennal segment seems to be orange at the base for quite a way, which again suggests pluvialis.

However, this can all be rather variable, so it is not definitive!

Ian

[ladyhawk]

Originally Posted by ladyhawk

We call it a clegg, is one the Haematopota maybe pluvialis.
and can give you a very nasty bite but only the females

Male of the species females have the smaller eyes also known as the Notched-horned cleg.