Family: Tabanidae
Subfamily: Tabaninae
Length: 13-15 mm
In their 1980 published survey of West Virginia Tabanids, Drees et al. found Hybomitra lasiophthalma to be the most common member of the genus in the Mountain State. Look for this early species in May, June, and the first part of July.
Elsewhere in North America, Hybomitra lasiophthalma has a considerable range, as Burger (1995) notes: from "Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, south to Colorado, Texas, and Georgia."
Key traits include hairy eyes, and each of the wings’ cross veins spotted with brown. The abdominal black area down the center of the dorsum is more constricted than in related species, and the sides of the abdomen have broad orangey areas.
Teskey (1969) stated that shrub-sedge marshes were the most productive larval collection sites. Other larval sites included "a sphagnum bog, a bog-like backwater of a river, the margin of a woodland pool, [and] a rotting log floating in a pond."
