And I really wish they didn’t!

It’s the female Horseflies that are the problem – they’re the biters, of humans, horses and other animals, to get the blood they need to aid egg production and, for some reason, they can smell my blood coming a mile away. I got several bites on my face during a recent fungi foray and had a nasty allergic reaction, was swollen and looked like I had some kind of infectious disease. Antihistamine meds don’t really agree with me, so I retreated from the world for a week till the worst of the swelling had gone down. (I got the bite in my photo four days ago. Luckily, Ms Horsefly was only on me for a second or two, before I noticed and flicked her off.)

The trouble for me is that Horseflies (a large and diverse group called the Tabanidae family, and also known by the common name of Cleg) are rather lovely creatures and they have the most incredible eyes, so I’m driven to capture photos of them (perhaps I’m a masochist!). The Horsefly in my photos is one of the Haematopota species. They have compound eyes that appear brightly coloured and have incredible patterns – from other photos I’ve seen, each creature seems to have a different pattern, much like fingerprints or retina patterns. So, I will continue to seek them out, just as they continue to seek me out!