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Project Noah Nature School
Cordylobia anthropophaga
Cordylobia anthropophaga, the mango fly, tumbu fly, tumba fly, putzi fly or skin maggot fly is a species of blow-fly common in East and Central Africa. It is a parasite of large mammals (including humans) during its larval stage (as shown in photos here)
Human flesh (my arm).
Adult flies deposit eggs on damp ground or laundry. Young maggots seek a suitable host and then burrow into skin. When fully grown, they make their way out and pupate in soil, to continue the cycle. I had about ten of these and would be very happy never to see another one.
Spotted on Sep 6, 2014
Submitted on Sep 22, 2014
4 Comments
Oh my! Thanks for including a scale in the photo so we can see how big it was. Almost 1 cm! Yikes!
it didn't hurt as much as you'd think. In fact, it was in there for at least a week and I flew home with it, not knowing it was still there...but one night it woke me up as it took another bite of me, and I decided this relationship must end.
Wow! It must have hurt!
Thanks for "taking one for science" ;-)