Hippoboscidae, the louse flies or keds, are obligate parasites of mammals and birds. In this family, the winged species can fly at least reasonably well, though others with vestigial or no wings are flightless and highly apomorphic. As usual in their superfamilyHippoboscoidea, most of the larval development takes place within the mother's body, and pupation occurs almost immediately. The sheep ked, Melophagus ovinus, is a wingless, reddish-brown fly that parasitizes sheep. The Neotropical deer ked, Lipoptena mazamae, is a common ectoparasite of white-tailed deer in the southeastern United States. Both winged and wingless forms may be seen. A common winged species is Hippobosca equina, called "the louse fly" among riders. Species in other genera are found on birds; for example, Ornithomya bequaerti has been collected from birds in Alaska. Two species of the Hippoboscidae – Ornithoica podargi and Ornithomya fuscipennis are also common parasites of the tawny frogmouth of Australia. Pseudolynchia canariensis is commonly found on pigeons and doves, and can serve as the vector of "pigeon malaria" . Louse flies of birds may transmit other parasites such as those in the genus Plasmodium 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 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. 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 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 have been shown to be good monophyletic groups at least overall. According to cladistic analysis of several DNA sequences, to make the Ornithomyinaemonophyletic, their tribeOlfersini deserves to be recognized as a full family, too.
