deer botfly
deer nose bot
cephenemyia latin

The name deer botfly (also deer nose bot) refers to any species in the genus Cephenemyia, within the family Oestridae.

Mouth parts are reduced, and like other adult Cephenemyia they do not feed.

The larval stages of Cephenemyia are obligate parasites of cervids.

The name deer botfly (also deer nose bot) refers to any species in the genus Cephenemyia, within the family Oestridae.

It was reported for many years that Cephenemyia was the fastest of all flying insects, cited by the New York Times and Guinness Book of World Records as traveling at speeds of over 800 miles per hour.

The source of this remarkable claim was an article by entomologist Charles H. T. Townsend in the 1927 Journal of the New York Entomological Society, wherein Townsend claimed to have estimated a speed of 400 yards per second while observing Cephenemyia pratti at 12,000 feet in New Mexico.