They don’t, but that’s only the second most interesting misunderstanding of the bot fly’s biology. Asa Fitch (1809-1879) was a sober-minded scientist not given to flights of fancy.

Bot flies have gained infamy in the age of YouTube, and for good reason: They're parasitic creatures, and they reproduce by getting their larvae under the skin of a host.

Once the fly is big enough, it drops out of its host’s skin and forms a pupa. The adult fly emerges, but can only live for a few days, since it has no functioning mouth — and can’t feed.

Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology spent the last 10 weeks playing host to bot fly larvae burrowed deep beneath his skin’s ...

Man returns from holiday in the Gambia to find bot fly maggots living under his skin Last updated at 14:43 02 May 2008 Most holidaymakers come home feeling refreshed and with some happy snaps to ...

The fly larvae then lives under the skin, feeding on human flesh. The maggots then eventually wiggle out of the body and become large hairy bot flies, that resemble bumble bees.