Bug card No. 1192 of 1,500
Sand fly
Phlebotomus
The sand fly is a tiny, hairy, yellowish fly with big black eyes. It is so small and quiet that people hardly notice it. It comes out at night, and the females need a drink of blood before they can lay eggs.
Lives in
Warm parts of Europe, Africa and Asia
Length
1.5 to 3 mm (0.06 to 0.12 in)
What does it eat?
Female sand flies drink blood from animals and people. The males only sip plant juices, and the larvae eat rotting leaves and fungi.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 77 seconds⚡moves 450 times its own body length every second
How big is Sand fly compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Sand fly about 4.9 km/h (3 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is a weak flier and moves in short little hops when it gets close to an animal.
2
It holds its wings up in a V shape over its humped back.
3
During the day it hides in dark, damp places like tree bark, animal burrows and cracks in walls.
4
From egg to grown-up fly takes about one or two months.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sand fly
?How big is a sand fly?
Only about 1.5 to 3 millimetres long, smaller than a grain of rice.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phlebotomus
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Psychodidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Psychodidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- Sandfly
Where the facts come from
- Phlebotomus (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 unknown author. Public domain, 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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