Had she not been so preoccupied, I'd never have taken her photograph because of the pain and potential danger of her bite. When I first saw one of these several years ago, my friend Jill had to tell me what it was and what it could do to me. The female, a carnivore, can "cut through the skin using razor-sharp mouthparts that are shaped like a knife or razor. The fl[y] will then suck the blood up from the wound for several minutes." She is one bad bug, well deserving of her "inky black cloak," to quote Hamlet.
In eighth grade, I read Bram Stoker's Dracula and grew so fearful of bats that any noise at my window sent me shivering from my bedroom. I might have known better: here's the true vampire and right now she and her kind have made Lake Cheston their birthing rooms. I must tread with care.
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