Stomoxys is a 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...

 of flies

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...

 in the family

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...

 Muscidae

Muscidae

Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea. The apical segment of the antennae of Muscidae are plumose, and the basal portion is smooth....

. The genus is unusual among the Muscidae in that it includes species that are bloodsucking ectoparasites

Parasitism

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...

 of mammals. The best-known species is Stomoxys calcitrans

Stable fly

Stomoxys calcitrans is commonly called the stable fly, barn fly, biting house fly, dog fly, or power mower fly. Unusually for a member of the family Muscidae, but like other members of the genus, Stomoxys calcitrans sucks blood from mammals.-External links:* * * hosted by the...

, most commonly known as the stable fly.

The genus is small, comprising a dozen or two described species, and current evidence suggests that it is paraphyletic

Paraphyly

A group of taxa is said to be paraphyletic if the group consists of all the descendants of a hypothetical closest common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups of descendants...

 as well.

Species

• Stomoxys bengalensis
• Stomoxys calcitrans
  Stable fly
  Stomoxys calcitrans is commonly called the stable fly, barn fly, biting house fly, dog fly, or power mower fly. Unusually for a member of the family Muscidae, but like other members of the genus, Stomoxys calcitrans sucks blood from mammals.-External links:* * * hosted by the...
  
  (Linnaeus
  Carolus Linnaeus
  Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
  
  , 1758
  Systema Naturae
  The book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...
  
  )
• Stomoxys indicus (Picard, 1908)
• Stomoxys inornatus
• Stomoxys niger
• Stomoxys nigra (Macquart)
• Stomoxys omega
• Stomoxys pallidus
• Stomoxys sitiens
• Stomoxys transvittatus
• Stomoxys varipes
• Stomoxys xanthomelas (Roubaud 1937)