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This article is about the flying insect.

For other uses, see flying (disambiguation), fly (disambiguation), flies


(disambiguation), or flight.

Fly
Temporal range: 2450 Ma
Pre

O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Middle Triassic Recent

A poster with sixteen different species


of flies.

Scientific classification

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Arthropoda

Class:

Insecta

Superorder:

Panorpida

(unranked):

Antliophora

Order:

Diptera
Linnaeus, 1758

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings). Diptera is a large order
containing an estimated 1,000,000 species of mosquitoes, gnats, midges and others, although only 12% (about
120,000 species) have been described.[1][2] It is one of the major insect orders with ecological and human importance.
Mosquitoes (Culicidae) arevectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, encephalitis, and
other infectious diseases.
Contents
[hide]

1Taxonomy and phylogeny

2Anatomy and morphology

3Life cycle and development

4Evolution

5Interaction with humans

6In culture

7Notes

8References
o

8.1Biology

8.2Classification

8.3Evolution

8.4Potential uses

9External links

Taxonomy and phylogeny[edit]


Dipterans belong to the taxon Mecopterida, that also contains
the Mecoptera, Siphonaptera, Lepidoptera (butterflies andmoths) and Trichoptera. Within Mecopterida, they are
classified closely together with Mecoptera and Siphonaptera in the superorder Antliophora.[3] The presence of a single
pair of wings distinguishes most true flies from other insects with "fly" in their names. However, some true flies have
become secondarily wingless. For example, many members of the superfamilyHippoboscoidea and some species
that are inquilines live in social insect colonies.
Diptera is broken down into two suborders, Nematocera and Brachycera. The Nematocera are recognized by their
elongated bodies and many-segmented, often feathery antennae as represented by mosquitoes and crane flies. The
Brachycera have a more roundly proportioned body and much shorter antennae. In 1964,Boris Borisovitsch
Rohdendorf proposed a classification in which the Nematocera are split into two suborders, the Archidiptera and
the Eudiptera.[4]
1. Suborder Nematocera (77 families, 35 of them extinct) long antennae, pronotum distinct from mesonotum,
in Nematocera, larvae are either eucephalic or hemicephalic and often aquatic.
2. Suborder Brachycera (141 families, 8 of them extinct) short antennae, the pupa is inside a puparium
formed from the last larval skin, and they are generally robust flies with larvae having reduced mouthparts.
1. Infraorders Tabanomorpha and Asilomorpha these comprise the majority of what were
the Orthorrhapha under older classification schemes. The antennae are short, but differ in
structure from those of the Muscomorpha.
2. Infraorder Muscomorpha (largely the Cyclorrhapha of older schemes) Muscomorpha have threesegmented, aristate (with a bristle) antennae and larvae with three acephalic instars (maggots).
Most of the Muscomorpha are further subdivided into the subsections Acalyptratae and Calyptratae based
on whether or not they have a calypter (a wing flap that extends over the halteres). The family Muscidae,
that includes the house fly, is among the Calyptratae.
Beyond that, considerable revision in the taxonomy of the flies has taken place since the introduction of modern
cladistic techniques, and much remains uncertain. The secondary ranks between the suborders and the families
are more out of practical or historical considerations than out of strict respect for phylogenetic classifications
(modern cladists reject the use of Linnaean rank names). All classifications in use now, including this article,
contain some paraphyletic groupings; this is emphasized where the numerous alternative systems are most
greatly at odds. See list of families of Diptera.
Some authors draw a distinction in writing the common names of insects. True flies are written as two words,
such as crane fly, robber fly, bee fly, moth fly, and fruit fly. In contrast, common names of nondipteran insects
that have "fly" in their names are written as one word, e.g. butterfly, stonefly, dragonfly, scorpionfly, sawfly,
caddisfly, whitefly.[5] In practice, however, though it is practical this is a comparatively new convention; especially
in older books, one commonly might see the likes of "saw fly" and "caddis fly", or hyphenated forms such as
house-fly and dragon-fly.[6] In any case, non-entomologists cannot, in general, be expected to tell dipterans, "true

flies", from other insects, so it would be unrealistic to expect rigour in the use of common names. Also,
exceptions to this rule occur, such as the hoverfly, which is a true fly, and the Spanish fly, a type of blister beetle.

Anatomy and morphology[edit]


See also: Morphology of Diptera and Biology of Diptera

Portrait of a Horse fly(Sarcophagidae)

Diptera have one pair of fore wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, or reduced hind wings, on
the metathorax. Some species of flies are exceptional in that they are secondarily flightless. The only other order
of insects bearing two true, functional wings in addition to any form of halteres are the Strepsiptera. In contrast to
the flies, the Strepsiptera bear their halteres on the mesothorax and their flight wings on the metathorax.
Adult flies consume only liquids due to their sucking mouthparts, or haustellates.[7] Female Tabanidae use knifelike mandibles and maxillae to make a cross-shaped incision in the hosts' skin and then lap up the blood. The
gut includes largediverticulae, allowing the insect to store small quantities of liquid after a meal.[8]
Flies are adapted for aerial movement and typically have short and streamlined bodies. The first tagma of the fly,
the head, consists of ocelli, antennae, compound eyes, and the mouthparts (the labrum, labium, mandible, and
maxilla make up the mouthparts). The second tagma, the thorax, bears the wings and contains the flight muscles
on the second segment, which is greatly enlarged; the first and third segments have been reduced to collar-like
structures. The third segment of the thorax bears the halteres, which help to balance the insect during flight. A
further adaptation for flight is the reduction in number of the neural ganglia, and concentration of nerve tissue in
the thorax, a feature that is most extreme in the highly derived Muscomorpha infraorder.[8]
Flies have a mobile head with large compound eyes on the sides of the head, and three small ocelli on the top.
For visual course control, flies' optic flow field is analyzed by a set of motion-sensitive neurons.[9] A subset of
these neurons is thought to be involved in using the optic flow to estimate the parameters of self-motion, such as
yaw, roll, and sideward translation.[10] Other neurons are thought to be involved in analyzing the content of the
visual scene itself, such as separating figures from the ground using motion parallax.[11][12] The H1 neuron is
responsible for detecting horizontal motion across the entire visual field of the fly, allowing the fly to generate and
guide stabilizing motor corrections midflight with respect to yaw.[13] The antennae take a variety of forms, but are
often short, which reduces drag while flying.
For detailed anatomy, explore,[7] which uses examples from the four major fly groups (Lower Diptera, Lower
Brachycera, Acalyptrate, Calyptrate) representing different anatomical expressions.

Life cycle and development[edit]

Mating anthomyiid flies

Diptera go through a complete metamorphosis (egg, larva, pupa, adult). In many flies, the larval stage is
predominant. Most dipteran larvae have a sclerotized head capsule, or variably reduced ultimately to remnant
mouth hooks and have no jointed, "true legs".[14] Some dipteran larvae, such as species of Simuliidae, Tabanidae,
and Vermileonidae have prolegs adapted to hold onto a substrate in flowing water, host tissues, or prey.[15] In
some parasitic species, the larvae are not independent and therefore, are released when they mature and form
pupae. Larvae have limited mobility.
Some anatomical distinction exists between the larvae of the Nematocera and the Brachycera (see
Classification section, below); especially in the Brachycera. Little demarcation is seen between
the thorax and abdomen, though the demarcation may be visible in many Nematocera, such as mosquitoes (see
image in the mosquito article); in the Brachycera, the head of the larva is not clearly distinguishable from the rest
of the body, and few, if any, sclerites occur. Informally, such brachyceran larvae are called maggots,[16] but the
term is not technical and often applied indifferently to fly larvae or insect larvae in general. The eyes and
antennae of brachyceran larvae are reduced or absent, and the abdomen also lacks appendages such as cerci.
This lack of features is an adaptation to food such as carrion, decaying detritus, or host tissues
surrounding endoparasites.[8] Nematoceran larvae generally have visible eyes and antennae, though they are
usually small and of limited function.
The pupae take various forms, and in some cases, develop inside a silk cocoon.[citation needed]
The adult stage is usually short, only to mate and lay eggs. The genitalia of female flies are rotated to a varying
degree from the position found in other insects. In some flies, this is a temporary rotation during mating, but in
others, it is a permanent torsion of the organs that occurs during the pupal stage. This torsion may lead to
the anus being below the genitals, or, in the case of 360 torsion, to the sperm duct being wrapped around the
gut and the external organs being in their usual position. When flies mate, the male initially flies on top of the
female, facing in the same direction, but then turns around to face in the opposite direction. This forces the male
to lie on his back for his genitalia to remain engaged with those of the female, or the torsion of the male genitals
allows the male to mate while remaining upright. This leads to flies having more reproduction abilities than most
insects, and at a much quicker rate. Flies occur in large populations due to their ability to mate effectively and in
a short period of time during the mating season.[8]

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