Tabanus nigrovittatus also known as the greenhead horse fly or the salt marsh greenhead or the New Jersey state bird is a species of biting horse-fly

Horse-fly

Insects in the order Diptera, family Tabanidae, are commonly called horse flies. Often considered pests for the bites that many inflict, they are among the world's largest true flies. They are known to be extremely noisy during flight. They are also important pollinators of flowers, especially in...

. Commonly found around coastal marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es of the Eastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, specifically within about a 500 mile radius, with Ocean City, New Jersey as the epicenter. The biting females are a considerable pest to both human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

s and animals while they seek a source of blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

 protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

to produce additional eggs. Females live for three to four weeks and may lay about 100 to 200 eggs per blood meal.