Hippoboscidae Samouelle, 1819

Robust, more or less dorsoventrally flattened flies, 1.5-12.0 mm long, usually dull with variable and poorly defined pale markings, and richly setose. Eyes separated in both sexes; ocelli often well-developed but sometimes vestigial or absent; antenna short and highly modified (Maa & Peterson 1987). Wing usually fully developed, rarely reduced or absent, membrane of wing often with microtrichia forming various patterns and of some taxonomic importance; venation simple and nearly complete or variously reduced. Legs robust, moderately short. Adult hippoboscids are blood­sucking ectoparasites of birds and mammals, and some species (e.g. Lipoptena cervi) occasionally also attack man. Some species are host specific whereas others feed on an array of hosts (Büttiger 1994, Chalupský & Povolný 1983, Krištofík 1998, Povolný & Rosický 1955). All species are macrolarviparous, retaining the larva in the uterus until the end of the third instar: the three larval instars feed on secretions from the maternal accessory glands. The stage at which larviposition occurs very probably represents a prepupal larva. The larva (or pupa) may be deposited in birds' nests or on the hair of a mammalian host, but sometimes it also falls to the ground.

Altogether 30 species are known to occur in Europe (Petersen 2007); 19 are listed in the present checklist (16 in the Czech Republic, 9 in Bohemia, 16 in Moravia, and 16 in Slovakia). The species-richness of the hippoboscid fauna is well known in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The basic characteristics of the family were given by Chalupský (1980). All the Czech species are reliably distinguishable by the structure of wings, the thoracic structures and the setae, and may be identified using the keys and figures by Büttiker (1994) or Chalupský (1980), who also summarized and completed earlier faunistic data. The nomenclature of the Fauna Europaea (Petersen 2007) is used in the present checklist.