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Hippoboscoidea is a superfamily of the Calyptratae. The flies in this superfamily are blood-feeding obligate of their hosts. Four families are often placed here:
The Hippoboscidae are commonly called louse flies or ked flies. The bat flies are Nycteribiidae and Streblidae (along with Mystacinobiidae); the Streblidae are probably not monophyletic.Petersen et al. (2007) The family Glossinidae, monotypic as to genus, contains the Tsetse fly, economically important as the vectors of trypanosomiasis. The enigmatic Mormotomyiidae are believed to belong to the Ephydroidea and not to Hippoboscoidea as previously construed.Kirk-Spriggs, A.H., Kotrba, M. & Copeland, R.S. 2011. Further details of the morphology of the enigmatic African fly Mormotomyia hirsuta Austen (Diptera: Mormotomyiidae). African Invertebrates 52 (1): 145-165.
In older literature, this group is often referred to as the Pupipara ("pupa-bearers"), because, 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-sized 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 the Hippoboscidae.
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