The Hunt Begins For An Entomological Mystery

Since arriving in the Davis Mountains, I began noticing what looked like mosquitos… Only they looked weird, unlike any mosquitoes I had ever seen. They also seemed kind of wimpy (to use the proper biological terminology). Though they landed on me, they didn’t try to suck my blood. (I watched them in fascination with my hand prepared to be deliver the strike of death should one try to stick its proboscis where it didn’t belong — inside my arm.)

So I did what any curious biologist does. I took pictures.

I emailed them to someone who might know what they were. My friend Kelley, who frequently comments here is just such a person. A bright curious type wrapping up a master’s degree in entomology. She too thought they were mosquitoes, though she agreed they looked very bizarre and said she would ask her professor. Her reply was quite exciting, even for a bird guy like myself.

Turns out, not a mosquito at all. It is a obscure genus of Tabanidae (the horse flies/deer flies) named Esenbeckia (pronounced Eye-zen-beck-ee-a). And actually, there is practically nothing known about them. They have that freakishly long proboscis, which is atypical of the rest of Tabanidae, and are largly nectar-feeders. But they have been known to take a blood meal, but don’t seem to be as voracious in their attempts to get one. Nor do we know whether they actually need the blood meal for oogenesis (egg production), let alone whether only the females take a meal or if both sexes do. Nor do we know how exactly they get a blood meal, since their mouthparts are so different from the rest of the family. However, my PI [Principal Investigator] did agree that he thinks the one on the flower has the presence of a blood meal in the midgut. He’s not sure if both are the same species. But he did say the dead give away that it was Tabanidae was the structure of the antennae…typical of the horse flies.

Naturally, she and her professor want to get their hands on one. Well Kelley, I have talked to the powers that be, and have a green light.

The search for a specimen begins.