__NOTOC__ Hippoboscidae, the louse flies or keds, are obligate parasites of

mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...

and

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

. In this

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, the winged

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

can fly at least reasonably well, though others with vestigial or no wings are flightless and highly

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ha ...

ic. As usual in their superfamily

Hippoboscoidea Hippoboscoidea is a superfamily (zoology), superfamily of the Calyptratae. The flies in this superfamily are blood-feeding obligate parasites of their hosts. Four family (biology), families are often placed here: *Glossinidae - Tsetse fly, Tsets ...

, most of the

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

l development takes place within the mother's body, and

pupation A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

occurs almost immediately. The sheep ked, '' Melophagus ovinus'', is a wingless, reddish-brown fly that parasitizes

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

. The Neotropical deer ked, '' Lipoptena mazamae'', is a common ectoparasite of

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

(''Odocoileus virginianus'') in the southeastern United States. Both winged and wingless forms may be seen. A common winged species is '' Hippobosca equina'', called "the louse fly". Species in other genera are found on birds; for example, '' Ornithomya bequaerti'' has been collected from birds in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. Two species of the Hippoboscidae – '' Ornithoica (Ornithoica) podargi'' and '' Ornithomya fuscipennis'' are also common parasites of the tawny frogmouth (''Podargus strigoides'') of Australia. '' Pseudolynchia canariensis'' is commonly found on

pigeon Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

s and

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

s, and can serve as the vector of "pigeon malaria"''. ''Louse flies of birds may transmit other parasites such as those in the genus ''

Plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a Hematophagy, blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then inj ...

'' or other '' Haemoproteus'' parasites. Some evidence indicates that other Hippoboscidae can serve as vectors of disease agents to mammals. For example, a louse fly of the species '' Icosta americana'' was found with

West Nile Virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family ''Flaviviridae'', from the genus ''Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The virus ...

infection from an American Kestrel.

Systematics

In some obsolete taxonomies, the name Hippoboscidae is applied to the group properly known as Pupipara, i.e. the present family plus the bat flies (

Nycteribiidae Nycteribiidae is a family of the true fly superfamily Hippoboscoidea. Together with their close relatives the Streblidae, they are known as "bat flies". As the latter do not seem to be a monophyletic group, it is conceivable that bat flies ca ...

and " Streblidae"). They are called pupipara because the females birth live young, one at a time, that are deposited as late stage larvae called a prepuparium that pupate immediately at birth. For the species ''Pseudolynchia canariensis,'' as well as other louse flies, reproduction is energetically expensive. Larvae feed on milk glands within the female fly prior to being deposited. Single offspring (pupae) can weigh more than an unfed emerged adult fly since the pupal casing is included in the pupal weight and teneral flies often put on mass after their first few blood meals. Two of the three traditional subfamilies ( Hippoboscinae and Lipopteninae) have been shown to be good

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

groups at least overall. According to

cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

analysis of several

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

s, to make the Ornithomyinae monophyletic, their

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Olfersini deserves to be recognized as a full family, too. *Subfamily Ornithomyinae Bigot, 1853 :*Genus '' Allobosca'' Speiser, 1899 (1 species) :*Genus '' Austrolfersia''

Bequaert Joseph Charles Bequaert was an American naturalist of Belgium, Belgian origin, born 24 May 1886 in Torhout (Belgium) and died on 12 January 1982 in Amherst, Massachusetts.William J. Clench, Clench WJ (1982). "Joseph Charles Bequaert". ''The Nauti ...

, 1953 (1 species) :*Genus '' Crataerina'' von Olfers, 1816 (8 species) :*Genus '' Icosta'' Speiser, 1905 (52 species) :*Genus '' Microlynchia'' Lutz, 1915 (4 species) :*Genus '' Myophthiria'' Rondani, 1875 (13 species) :*Genus '' Olfersia'' Leach, 1817 (7 species) :*Genus '' Ornithoctona'' Speiser, 1902 (12 species) :*Genus '' Ornithoica'' Rondani, 1878 (24 species) :*Genus '' Ornithomya'' Latreille, 1802 (29 species) :*Genus '' Ornithophila'' Rondani, 1879 (2 species) :*Genus '' Ortholfersia'' Speiser, 1902 (4 species) :*Genus '' Phthona'' Maa, 1969 (3 species) :*Genus '' Proparabosca'' Theodor & Oldroyd 1965 (1 species) :*Genus '' Pseudolynchia''

, 1926 (5 species) :*Genus '' Stilbometopa'' Coquillett, 1899 (5 species) *Subfamily Hippoboscinae :*Genus '' Hippobosca''

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1758 (7 species) :*Genus '' Struthiobosca'' Maa, 1963 (1 species) *Subfamily Lipopteninae :*Genus '' Lipoptena'' Nitzsch, 1818 (30 species) :*Genus '' Melophagus'' Latreille, 1802 (3 species) :*Genus '' Neolipoptena''

, 1942 (1 species)

References

External links

*[
Sheep KedPigeon Louse Fly
*
Photograph of A Louse Fly
*Images from Diptera.inf

*Images from BugGuid

''Pseudolychia canariensis'', pigeon louse fly
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
''Lipoptena mazamae'', Neotropical deer ked
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site {{Authority control Brachycera families Parasites of birds Taxa named by George Samouelle

Systematics

See also

References

External links