One family of flies that I do know are the Tabanidae (tabanos, sweet bees, deerflies).  Mike also got to know them while in San Ramon; consequently, los tabanos conocen la cuchilla de Mike, mae.

Although I was only bitten a couple of times, Mike, Erin and Kyle suffered regular, nasty, stinging bites after several minutes of annoyingly circling their heads.  The tabanos were quite common in San Ramon, but I only saw larva in the wetland at Palo Verde.