Photograph by Richard Hughes.
Photography contest, Honorable Mention.
Tabanus subsimilis -- striped horsefly, likely a male who landed there to drink juices from the surrounding berries, Jackson, Tennessee. For more images of bug eyes see
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/pictures/photos-10756/pictures-bug-eyes-close-ups/1
4 Comments
apokryltaros · 28 November 2011
It could just as well be the female: I thought both the male and female drink blood.
Joe Felsenstein · 28 November 2011
Not my favorite organism. When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, once I was alone in a rural swimming pool (a partially-enclosed small pond in the woods at a summer camp) and one of these started hunting me. I had to swim to the deep water and go under and hold my breath to get it to go away. Gives you some idea what prey experiences.
Mike Elzinga · 28 November 2011
Joe Felsenstein said:
Not my favorite organism. When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, once I was alone in a rural swimming pool (a partially-enclosed small pond in the woods at a summer camp) and one of these started hunting me. I had to swim to the deep water and go under and hold my breath to get it to go away. Gives you some idea what prey experiences.
4 Comments
apokryltaros · 28 November 2011
It could just as well be the female: I thought both the male and female drink blood.
Joe Felsenstein · 28 November 2011
Not my favorite organism. When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, once I was alone in a rural swimming pool (a partially-enclosed small pond in the woods at a summer camp) and one of these started hunting me. I had to swim to the deep water and go under and hold my breath to get it to go away. Gives you some idea what prey experiences.
Mike Elzinga · 28 November 2011
guymccardlejr · 30 November 2011
I'm from Pennsylvania as well and the horse flies are terrible. I've never seen up close though. From that photo, it sort of looks like a moth.
You might be interested in checking out my new skeptically themed website/podcast, The Inconvenient Truth.