Bot flies are not generally considered festive. This is especially true if you are a reindeer, which often have reindeer nasal bot flies, or snot bots, as they are affectionately known.

Sometimes entomologists get up close and personal with the bugs they study. And sometimes they incubate bot flies in their own arms until the parasites burst out of their skin a la the movie "Alien.

Which is why not one but two entomologists recently announced that they had incubated parasitic bot flies under their skin. On purpose. The bot fly is a relatively “friendly” parasite ...

They were later identified as being larvae from the species Oestrus ovis, otherwise known as the sheep bot fly. According to the authors of the study, a fly of this species had likely landed in or ...