Bot Fly vs Microceratotermes Carton Termite

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute	Bot Fly	Microceratotermes Carton Termite
Scientific Name	Dermatobia hominis	Microcerotermes crassus
Order	Diptera	Blattodea
Family	Oestridae	Termitidae
Size	12-18 mm	3-5 mm
Habitat	Forests	Forests
Diet	Parasites	Wood Feeders
Regions	Central America, South America	Southeast Asia, northern Australia
Conservation	Least Concern	Least Concern

Bot Fly

Parasitic fly whose larvae develop under the skin of mammals including humans. Female captures a mosquito and glues eggs to it — when the mosquito bites, body heat triggers egg hatching.

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Did You Know?

The human bot fly is so devious it hijacks mosquitoes — it catches them, glues eggs to their bodies, then the eggs hatch when the mosquito lands on warm skin.

Microceratotermes Carton Termite

A wood-feeding termite found across Southeast Asia and Australia that builds small arboreal carton nests on trees. Workers construct covered runways along tree bark to access feeding sites. Soldiers have short, thick mandibles.

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Did You Know?

Multiple small nests of this species can be interconnected by covered galleries running along tree branches, forming a distributed colony network.