Stomoxys with ticks?

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dtsh
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 6:06 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Stomoxys with ticks?

#1 Post by dtsh » Sat Jul 04, 2020 5:28 am

A few years ago I built some fly traps to capture the biting flies to help make life here in the swamp a little more tollerable.
The traps work well and lately I have been comparing different trap designs and counting the contents of the traps each day to help me evaluate the effectiveness of each trap. As an aside, if anyone wants to know more about the traps, feel free to ask, but this post is more about what I captured today so I will gloss over the traps themselves aside from noting that they target biting flies, stable flies, horseflies, deerflies, etc.

The flies here are Stomoxys calcitrans, commonly known as Stable flies; they are approximately 6-8mm long. I've sorted through a great many of these, but hadn't run across this previously so thought I would share here. While I was counting the Stomoxys captures from today I noticed that two of them appear to have ticks on their abdomens. I'm no entomologist, so I don't know how common this is or if they are indeed ticks (sure look like it to me), but I found it quite interesting.

I've encountered other ectoparasites on various insects I have studied, seen many red mites clinging to mosquitoes fairly regularly, but this one was a first for me. Anyone know more about ticks feeding on other insects? Common?

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david_b
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Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2019 1:07 pm

Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#2 Post by david_b » Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:58 am

They look like mites.

dtsh
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 6:06 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#3 Post by dtsh » Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:45 pm

They probably are, but the legs look more like ticks to me than mites, not that I'm saying they are ticks, I don't know, but the appearance is interesting. I am not familiar enough with ticks or mites to know.

When I find things like this it reminds me that the irritating little beast that harasses me is also harassed by even smaller things harassing it.
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david_b
Posts: 161
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2019 1:07 pm

Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#4 Post by david_b » Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:27 pm

As far as I know, ticks live on the blood of mammals.

Scarodactyl
Posts: 2775
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Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#5 Post by Scarodactyl » Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:11 am

Mammals, birds, and more rarely reptiles and amphibians. Never insects as far as I know. They do look pretty ticky!

dtsh
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 6:06 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#6 Post by dtsh » Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:04 am

I found 3 more, in my small sample size it looks like it's about 1 in 66 of the Stomoxys has these attached. One found tonight was quite heavily laden. I have these in 80% ETOH for later use.
I find it interesting that these appear only on the Stomoxys flies, I have yet to see one on any of the others. I've sorted over 1000 flies this week so it's not for lack of looking!
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dtsh
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 6:06 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Stomoxys with ticks?

#7 Post by dtsh » Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:52 am

I never updated this it seems.....
I found out a little while after posting this that these are Macrocheles sp., probably M.muscadomesticae

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