Hippoboscoidea is a superfamily of Calyptratae

Calyptratae

Calyptratae is a subsection of Schizophora in the insect order Diptera, commonly referred to as the calyptrate muscoids...

. The flies in this superfamily are blood-feeding obligate parasites of their hosts. Five families

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 are often placed here:

• Glossinidae
• Hippoboscidae
  Hippoboscidae
  Hippoboscidae, the louse flies or keds are obligate parasites of mammals and birds. In this family there are winged species which can fly at least reasonably well, as well as others with vestigial or no wings which are flightless and highly apomorphic...
  
  
• Mormotomyiidae
  Mormotomyiidae
  The family Mormotomyiidae contains only one known species, Mormotomyia hirsuta, commonly known as the Frightful Hairy Fly, which is found in Kenya...
  
   (disputed, see Kirk-Spriggs et al., 2011)
• Nycteribiidae
  Nycteribiidae
  Nycteribiidae of the true fly superfamily Hippoboscoidea are known as "bat flies", together with their close relatives the Streblidae. As the latter do not seem to be a monophyletic group, it is conceivable to unite all bat flies in a single family....
  
  
• Streblidae
  Streblidae
  Streblidae are flies in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, and together with their relatives the Nycteribiidae are known as "bat flies". They are winged or wingless ectoparasites of bats, and often have long legs...
  
   (disputed)

The Hippoboscidae

Hippoboscidae

Hippoboscidae, the louse flies or keds are obligate parasites of mammals and birds. In this family there are winged species which can fly at least reasonably well, as well as others with vestigial or no wings which are flightless and highly apomorphic...

 are commonly called louse flies. The bat flies are Nycteribiidae

Nycteribiidae

Nycteribiidae of the true fly superfamily Hippoboscoidea are known as "bat flies", together with their close relatives the Streblidae. As the latter do not seem to be a monophyletic group, it is conceivable to unite all bat flies in a single family....

 and Streblidae

Streblidae

Streblidae are flies in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, and together with their relatives the Nycteribiidae are known as "bat flies". They are winged or wingless ectoparasites of bats, and often have long legs...

; the latter are probably not monophyletic and ought to be either split in two families or united with the Nycteribiidae. The family Glossinidae, monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 as to genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

, contains the tsetse flies

Tsetse fly

Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...

, economically important as the vector of trypanosomiasis

Trypanosomiasis

Trypanosomiasis or trypanosomosis is the name of several diseases in vertebrates caused by parasitic protozoan trypanosomes of the genus Trypanosoma. Approximately 500,000 men, women and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis which is caused by...

. The enigmatic Mormotomyiidae

Mormotomyiidae

The family Mormotomyiidae contains only one known species, Mormotomyia hirsuta, commonly known as the Frightful Hairy Fly, which is found in Kenya...

 is entirely monotypic at present, with the single species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 Mormotomyia hirsuta known from one locality in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. Most probably the Mormotomyiidae

Mormotomyiidae

The family Mormotomyiidae contains only one known species, Mormotomyia hirsuta, commonly known as the Frightful Hairy Fly, which is found in Kenya...

 belong to the Ephydroidea

Ephydroidea

Ephydroidea is a superfamily of flies....

.

In older literature, this group is often referred to as the Pupipara ("pupa

Pupa

A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...

-bearers"), in reference to the fact that, unlike virtually all other insects, most of the larval development takes place inside the mother's body, and pupation occurs almost immediately after "birth" – in essence, instead of laying eggs a female lays full-size pupae one at a time. In the strict sense, the Pupipara only encompass the Hippoboscidae, Nycteribiidae and "Streblidae", which in older works were all included in Hippoboscidae.