Their saliva, which contains anticoagulants, a number of enzymes and histamine, is mixed with the blood, preventing clotting until it is ingested by the fly.

Subgenera: Species: In Serbian mythology there is a legend concerning an ala (demon) (a female entity associated with hailstorms, madness and disease) fabled to have died in a cave near the town of Golubac in the Pozarevac District in Eastern Serbia.

The rotting corpse of this being is said to send forth each Spring a swarm of Golubatz flies – individuals of the species Simulium colombaschense.

The fact that the Golubatz fly is a voracious bloodsucker and disease vector accords well with the functions attributed to the ala, emphasising her malign potency – even in death – while the legend provides, reciprocally, a folkloric explanation for the genesis of so unpleasant an insect.

S. colombaschense was a notorious insect pest of the Banat (part of the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the Danube), during the 18th century.