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Sticker of Sheep ked
Bug card No. 1210 of 1,500

Sheep ked

Melophagus ovinus
Eats: BloodFlies and mosquitoesHouses and farms6 legs

The sheep ked is a funny little fly that has no wings at all. It is brown and hairy and looks a lot like a tick. It spends its whole life hiding in the woolly coat of a sheep.

Lives in
Most of Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. People carried it with sheep to many other places, from Australia to the Americas
Length
4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in)
Top speed
about 6.9 km/h (4.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
It is made for life on sheep and is not a danger to children. It can make sheep itchy and sore, though.
What does it eat?
It drinks sheep blood. It pokes its sharp mouth into tiny blood vessels just under the sheep's skin.
For real!Photo of Sheep ked
Picture by Acarologiste. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Sheep ked about 6 mm long (0.24 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 55 secondsmoves 320 times its own body length every second

How big is Sheep ked compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its legs are very strong and end in little claws, so it can hold on tight in the wool.

2

A mother ked does not lay eggs. She grows one baby at a time inside her body and feeds it with a kind of milk.

3

The baby turns into a hard, dark case glued to the wool. About three weeks later a new ked climbs out.

4

If it falls off its sheep, a ked can only live for about a week.

5

Farmers can get rid of many keds just by shearing the sheep's wool.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sheep ked

?Is a sheep ked a tick?

No. It looks like one, but it is a wingless fly. A ked has six legs and a real tick has eight.

?What does a sheep ked eat?

It drinks the blood of sheep.

?How big is a sheep ked?

It is only about 4 to 6 millimetres long, about as big as a grain of rice.

Myth buster

Myth: The sheep ked is a kind of tick.

Truth: No. People sometimes call it the sheep tick, but it is a fly without wings. It has six legs, while a real tick has eight.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Melophagus ovinus
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Hippoboscidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Hippoboscidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, North America, South America
Also known as
Sheep tick

Where the facts come from

  1. Melophagus ovinus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Acarologiste. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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