Description
The larval stages of Cephenemyia are obligate parasites of cervids. Eggs hatch in the uterus of the female. She then flies close to the head of her host species and while hovering ejects her larvae into its nostrils. Larvae migrate to the base of the animal's tongue, where they mature in clusters to a size of 25 to 36 mm. After being ejected by the host, they pupate in soil (2 to 3 weeks) before emerging as a sexually-mature but non-feeding adult, which must quickly find a mate, since its life is short.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) described deer botfly larvae as follows:
However, without any exception, stags are found to have maggots living inside the head, and the habitat of these creatures is in the hollow underneath the root of the tongue and in the neighbourhood of the vertebra to which the head is attached. These creatures are as large as the largest grubs; they grow all together in a cluster, and they are usually about twenty in number.
Read more about this topic: Deer Botfly
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