Sturdy Legs

Yumbo, Colombia

What sort of Fly is this?

Thumbnail by PitterCol
Minot, ND

Nice find! It's a louse fly (family Hippoboscidae) - see https://zookeys.pensoft.net/showimg.php?filename=big_315653.jpg for another example. These are ectoparasites on mammals and birds; one of the best known is the sheep ked, a wingless hippoboscid - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melophagus_ovinus
There are 18 species distributed among 11 genera and two subfamilies of hippoboscid flies recorded in Colombia.

Yumbo, Colombia

Excellent information as always thank you. So that's why it was eyeing me with that gleam in it's compound eye!

Minot, ND

Here is the only paper on the Hippoboscidae of Colombia that I was able to locate: https://www.researchgate.net/requests/attachment/101062890
Your specimen might be in the genus Ornithomya.

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