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Horse and Deer Flies
Tabanidae
Horse-flies or horseflies (for other names, see common names) are true flies in the family Tabanidae in the insect order Diptera. They are often large and agile in flight, and the females bite animals, including humans, to obtain blood. They prefer to fly in sunlight, avoiding dark and shady areas, and are inactive at night. They are found all over the world except for some islands and the polar regions. Horse-flies are sometimes also referred to...
13 branches of this family, most-observed first

Horse Flies
subfamilyTabaninae

Deer Flies
subfamilyChrysopsinae

Long-tongue Horse Flies
subfamilyPangoniinae

Scepsidinae
subfamilyScepsidinae

Betrequia
genusBetrequia

Orgizomyia
genusOrgizomyia

Phorcotabanus
genusPhorcotabanus
Hippocentrum
genusHippocentrum
Mesopangonius
genusMesopangonius
Paulianomyia
genusPaulianomyia
Atelozella
genusAtelozella

Japenoides
genusJapenoides
Atelozomyia
genusAtelozomyia
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Tabanidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47821.