Osca lata

Osca lata · Order: Diptera · Family: Tabanidae

Can bite. Females bite mammals to obtain blood for egg production.

Source: Wikipedia

Osca lata
Photo: Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY

Adults are about 2 cm long and have a bright reddish-orange stripe on the sides of the thorax and abdomen. They are found in southern Chile and southern Argentina.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults are generally around 2 cm in length.

Source: Wikipedia

Does it bite or sting?

Females bite mammals to obtain blood.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Female Osca lata feed on mammalian blood to produce eggs.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Their range includes southern Chile and southern Argentina.

Source: Wikipedia

Questions people ask

Do they bite?

Yes, female Osca lata bite mammals to get blood for egg development.

Source: Wikipedia

Where are they found?

They occur in southern Chile and southern Argentina.

Source: Wikipedia

How big are they?

Adults are about 2 cm long.

Source: Wikipedia

What do they look like?

They have a bright reddish-orange stripe on the sides of the thorax and abdomen.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Tabanidae)

Black Horse FlyBlack Horse FlyTabanus atratusCan biteBeautiful Deer FlyBeautiful Deer FlyChrysops callidusCan biteStriped Horse FlyStriped Horse FlyTabanus lineolaCan biteSplayed Deer FlySplayed Deer FlyChrysops caecutiensCan bite

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osca_lata

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.