The seasonal variation of adult populations of Haematobia irritans Linnaeus was monitored at Santa Fe, Argentina from August 1992 to August 1994 by weekly counts of flies on grazing heifers. Each year, flies were recorded at a density of more than two flies per heifer from August/September to the following June, with peaks of abundance in mid to late spring and late summer to mid autumn. The seasonal trend of fly numbers was best correlated with the mean temperature 4 weeks prior to each fly count (correlation indices of P<0.01 in six of the nine fly periods) followed by the previous 4 week mean saturation deficit. Rainfall and relative humidity correlated poorly with the seasonality of H. irritans. Temperature appeared crucial at the beginning (late winter) and at the end (early-mid autumn) of the fly season while its relevance diminished in the middle of the season. The percentage of heifers that were infested decreased from 80–100% in the fly season to 0–55% between fly seasons but H. irritans never disappeared from the heards, indicating that if diapause occurs at the latitude of the study area, part of the fly population was not sensitive to diapause inducing factors.