The Hippoboscidae, also known as keds or louse flies, are primarily tropical to subtropical in distribution and are comprised of about 200 species in over 20 genera.
Females are larviparous.
Larvae usually fall to the ground where they pupate. This catalog records only one fossil species of this family, Ornithomyia rottensis Statz, from the Oligocene Braunkohle of Rott, Germany.