battoon flies (baht-toon flies)

Images by Kbignell via Midjourney

The battoon flies of the Quouribi desert shoot their maggots at living things, not waiting for the victim to die and fall to the sands to be sucked dry.
Male flies of the species are small and hard, covered in a spiky, hard chiton and armed with two sharp horns at the top front of their head. They fly in groups and smash into living things trying to create wounds so that the big, plump females can shoot their maggots at the wounds for entry.
The fertilized eggs are carried in the female's well protected carapace pouch where the maggots hatch and enter a state of slow metabolism stupor until they can be shot at significant speed at a victim. The maggots then burrow their way with amazing speed into the flesh of the target, eating flesh at an astounding rate. The maggots mature within a couple of days, morphing into a flying hard case of chiton quickly and laying eggs in the flesh they are departing. The individual fly can assume either sex while growing in a host. Just a few maggots shot into an open wound can reduce a full grown man to nothing but bone in less than a week. The fact that the fly reproduces so quickly from their maggot form ensures that swarms of these dangerous insects can be produced from one victim in a very short time.
Once battoon flies swarm away from their victim, they can go weeks without water or food in search across the desert for a new host.
Battoon flies have been observed during sand storms in the desiccant sands of the The Desert of Quouribi massing together and forming tight balls of hundreds and even thousands of insects, falling to the floor of the desert to ride out the storms. The outside layers of insects die, having the moisture sucked from their bodies, which forms a layer of chiton protecting the flies inside the ball. Once the storm has past, the still living insects break out of the ball and swarm across the desert in search of victims of the storm that may retain some small bit of moisture.
Sand-sharks have been known to follow sand storms and search out the downed balls of massed flies, consuming them in one bite as they lay helpless on the sand in the moments after the storm's passing.

Male battoon flies are small, their hard bodies about a quarter inch to a half inch long and about an eighth of an inch thick, they have six pairs of long thin wings that can accelerate themselves to great velocity, fast enough to rip through several layers of cloth, and to cause deep wounds on exposed skin.

by Kbignell via Midjourney

Female battoon flies are bigger, 3 to 5 inches long and 1 to 3 inches thick when not swollen with eggs. The female carapace is much more flexible than the male's, and segmented in a way that as the maggot pouch grows, the segments allow for expansion without exposing the flesh beneath. Strong muscles around the maggot pouch expel maggots at a high rate of speed and with great rapidity and accuracy. Exposed eyes, wounds and even ear and nose openings becoming a target for the launched larvae.

by Kbignell via Midjourney