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I just found this little guy crawling on me after coming in from the garden in Northern VT. We live in a narrow grassy valley in a pretty wooded area.

This bug was crawling up my neck and when I tried to sweep him away he clung the way a tick does. He also has a very flat profile and kind of a "hard" feeling body, but otherwise bares no resemblance to a tick.

I took this photo with my phone so it's not great. The eyes are distinctly roundish and black. His mouth parts were visible and moving around slightly, but while I watched him he didn't appear to be trying to bite into me.

That's all I've got.

unknown bug

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  • $\begingroup$ It looks like a wingless fly. I've seen something like that in an insect book. $\endgroup$ – bli Sep 8 '16 at 8:57
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The blurry picture makes it hard to be sure, but I'm guessing it's some sort of louse fly (family Hippoboscidae). They are typically very flat, and can lack wings. They can bite humans, but the different species are dependent on their specific hosts to reproduce.

Image of a louse fly (found on someones neck) for comparison: enter image description here

(image source)

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  • $\begingroup$ That's totally what my bug looked like. Well done! $\endgroup$ – doub1ejack Sep 8 '16 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ Found a good general-interest article about louse flies: entomologytoday.org $\endgroup$ – doub1ejack Sep 8 '16 at 15:03

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