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In association with Capital High School Helena, MT
The life cycle of the deer fly starts out as eggs. Eggs are laid in quntities from 100 to 1000 eggs. Eggs are laid on horizontal surfaces like leaves on aquatic vegitation. The eggs are cylindrical and are about 1 to 2.5 mm in length. The eggs will hatch in five to seven day depending on weather.
The Larvae stage comes next. Chrysops are termed "hydrobionts" because they are usually aquatic. The Larvae range in color from the more prominent white to a brownish color. Now if your having trouble understanding all of this, just wait, it gets better. Larvae breathe through a tracheal siphon located at thier posterior end. Larvae have a small head and 11 to 12 additional segments. Just wait. Larvae pass through 6 to 9 stadia. The time spent in the larvae stage can range from a few months to a year. The larvae incubate in the soil. Preferably in damp to submerged soil. When it is ready to pupate the larvae move from deep in the soil to the upper 2.5 to 5 cm of soil. Two days after it breaks the surface it is ready to pupate.
The pupa is the next stage. The pupal or "aster" are brown and have leg and wing cases. This stage is the shortest lasting only about two to three weeks.
The adult fly then comes out of the casing from a slit located at the thorax. In most species the male emerges before the female. Male are easy to differentiate from females because the eyes of the male are continguous and widely seperated on the female. Deer flies can range in length from 7 to 10 mm and are yellow to black in color and have stripes on there abdomens.
The Life cycle of a deer fly is usually only about a year with the eggs deposited by about October and larvae hatching in spring. Adults live only about 30 to 60 days.