ABSTRACT

Parasitic insects and arthropods are serious health threats for humans, pets, livestock and wildlife. The health threat may be direct, as a result of massive loss of blood when abundances of blood-feeders are high. Insect-vectored diseases represent one of the most significant health threats for humans. Blood-feeding arthropods have particular habitat requirements and their abundances are regulated by food limitation and predation, just as are organisms. Blood-feeding species feed on terrestrial vertebrates, but most species are specialized to feed on particular vertebrate groups. Biting midges, also called “punkies” and “no-see-ums” are tiny flies belonging to the order Diptera, family Ceratopogonidae. Larvae are aquatic or semiaquatic scavengers, but adults are blood-feeders with a painful bite out of proportion to their small size. The screw-worm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax, historically has been one of the most destructive livestock pests in tropical and subtropical parts of the New World.