Black fly
Simulium
Black flies are tiny dark flies that live near rivers and streams. There are almost 2,000 different kinds.
Lives in
Many parts of the world, near rivers and streams
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch
Some black flies spread serious illnesses, like river blindness, and many bites can make people sick. Keep them away with clothes and bug spray, do not swat them on your face, and tell a grown-up if you get lots of bites.
What does it eat?
The females drink blood from people and animals. They cut a little hole in the skin and lap up the blood.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Black fly about 8 km/h (5 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
Their spit stops blood from clotting, so they can keep drinking.
2
An old legend from Serbia says a swarm of black flies came out of a cave where a monster lay.
3
One kind was such a pest in the 1700s that people near the Danube river still tell stories about it.
you asked
Most asked questions about Black fly
?Where do black flies live?
Near rivers and streams in many parts of the world.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Simulium
- Named by
- Latreille, 1802
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Simuliidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Simuliidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Blackfly
Where the facts come from
- Simulium (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 United States Department of Agriculture. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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