I thought it had been a while since we took a moment to appreciate the insect world so we are dedicating Wild Fact #253 to an insect that just may be the most exaggerated animal on the planet. You may have heard of the Deer Botfly as there have been numerous reports published stating they can reach flying speeds of up to 800 miles per hour. If you take a second to think about this, you will soon realize that this is completely inaccurate. After all, the speed of sound is somewhere around 768 miles per hour which means you would hear a sonic boom every time this fly went by you…and you had better be careful not to get hit by this insect as they could kill you flying at these speeds (it would be equivalent to getting shot).
So how fast is the Deer Botfly?
This is the million dollar question. It is pretty easy to prove that they don’t reach speeds of 800 mph but it is a little more difficult determining just how fast they are capable of flying. At this point in time estimates of the Deer Botfly reaching a flying speed somewhere between 25 and 50 miles per hour, which is still pretty quick but not supersonic. I am still not sure why this bumblebee-looking insect needs to fly this fast but I am sure they have a good reason.
Watch Out, My Deer
As I just alluded to, the Deer Botfly does indeed mimic the look of a bumblebee. What benefit do they get from looking similar to this harmless pollen-loving insect? Well, I am not 100% sure but if I had to guess, I would hypothesize that it had something to do with blending into their environment so they can get close to their host. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Deer Botfly is a parasite that needs to hover around the face of a deer so they can spray their eggs into the nostrils of the poor unsuspecting deer.
Fast As Can Bee
Once the eggs make it into the cervids internal system, they will migrate to the animals uterus where they will feed and go through their life stages. Once they are ready to leave the host, they will find their way back up to the tongue of the deer species where they will eventually get spit back out into the environment. At this point they spend 2-3 weeks in the soil before emerging as the adult version you see above. The adults are non-feeding so they have short time to find a mate…and a deer so they can pass their fertilized eggs on and continue the cycle. Perhaps this is why the Deer Botfly needs to be so quick?
