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Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
- Flies, Mosquitoes, Gnats
- “two wings”
- fourth largest order (third in North America)
- if an insect has just one pair of wings, it is a fly of some kind.
- all adult flies have sucking mouth parts
- metamorphosis is complete
Other Common Names
- The common names of the members of this order (Diptera) are written as two words:
- crane fly, robber fly, bee fly, moth fly, fruit fly, etc.
The common names of non-dipteran insects that have "fly" in their name are written as one word:
- butterfly, stonefly, dragonfly, scorpionfly, sawfly, caddisfly, whitefly, etc.
Identification
- Adult flies, except for wingless species, have two functional wings and two halteres.
- The halteres are club-like appendages that are essentially the modified hind wings.
- However, the true flies have evolved so that their hind wings have become modified into balance organs, or halteres, which act rather like a gyroscope, providing a high level of fine control during flight
- Flies always have two or more veins in their wings as long as their wings are membranous.
Flies suck
- The mouthparts of flies are designed to suck or pierce, rather than bite, and they are all liquid feeders.
- Some get their nutrition by drinking liquefied putrid matter, for example dung; or they suck up nectar from flowers; others have pointed mouthparts, as in the case of mosquitoes, which are used
to pierce skin and drink blood.
Flies and man
- Just as insects in general can be useful or harmful to man, this is particularly true of the true flies - because there are so many of them, they have plenty of scope to be 'helpful' or a nuisance, according to their various lifestyles:
- Many nectar feeders play a useful pollinating role, in the same way that bees do.
-Hoverflies, for example, are very numerous and colourful, and their hovering flight is a common and welcome sight in both gardens and wild places.
- Flies that feed on decaying matter (either as adults or maggots) play a useful scavenging role in nature, whether they clear up dung or dead animals. And of course, flies are also food to many creatures.
- Some species of Diptera, however, pose major problems where man is concerned. Many families of flies are blood sucking, and while they are feeding can transmit serious disease - including yellow fever, malaria and sleeping sickness.
- Some flies are also agricultural pests - such as the carrot fly, whose larvae feed underground on carrots,
- Among flies that are a problem to farm animals are the warble flies or gad flies (Hypoderma bovis and other species) which lay their eggs on cattle, and the greenbottles (Lucilia sericata), which lay their eggs on sheep (and sometimes pet rabbits) and whose larvae eat away the flesh (myiasis).
- The Housefly Musca domestica is not a blood feeder, but because it isn't fussy where it goes to suck up liquids, it can transmit
disease by feasting one minute on putrefying flesh or dung, and the next on sweet things on the kitchen table.
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