Can anyone ID a large horse fly that visited my house last night? - It was resting on a window, I didn't get a great view(kept my distance from the vicious looking beast)but it was approx 25mm in length, robust and generally brownish in colour with yellowish underparts, prominent jaws and looked like a kingsize version of the common type that often give you a nip at this time of year.
Over the years I have only seen horse flies of similar size a handfull of times, so they must be pretty scarce, at least in my area. The first time I came across them was many years ago, when 2 were chasing a cow which was galloping across a field trying to escape.... obviously they pack a bit of a punch!!
I've done a google search to try and find out what species it is.... pretty much resembles tabanus autumnalis except that the few pics that I could find of this species had green eyes not brown. Couldn't get the size of autumnalis either, though it did look pretty beefy in the pics.
Over the years I have only seen horse flies of similar size a handfull of times, so they must be pretty scarce, at least in my area. The first time I came across them was many years ago, when 2 were chasing a cow which was galloping across a field trying to escape.... obviously they pack a bit of a punch!!
I've done a google search to try and find out what species it is.... pretty much resembles tabanus autumnalis except that the few pics that I could find of this species had green eyes not brown. Couldn't get the size of autumnalis either, though it did look pretty beefy in the pics.