dipteran

/dip"teuhr euhn/, adj.

1. dipterous (def. 1).

n.

2. a dipterous insect.

[1835-45; DIPTER(A) + -AN]

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Any member of the more than 85,000 species in the insect order Diptera (the two-winged, or "true," flies), characterized by the use of only one pair of wings for flight and the reduction of the second pair of wings to knobs used for balance.

Dipterans live in all habitats worldwide, including the subarctic and high mountains. They range in size from about 0.05 in. (1 mm) long (midges) to 3 in. (8 cm) long (robber flies). Dipteran larvae break down and redistribute organic materials, and both adults and larvae are a significant link in numerous food chains. Many species are annoying bloodsuckers, and several (e.g., housefly, mosquito, sand fly, tsetse fly) are vectors of disease. Other species cause great damage to agricultural crops. See also blowfly, crane fly, fruit fly, gnat, horsefly, leaf miner.

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▪ insect

Introduction

   any member of an order of insects containing the two-winged or so-called true flies. Although many winged insects are commonly called flies, the name is strictly applicable only to members of Diptera. One of the largest insect orders, it numbers more than 120,000 species that are relatively small, with soft bodies. Although the mouthparts of flies are of the sucking type, individuals show considerable variation in structure. Many flies are of great economic importance. Some bloodsuckers are serious pests of man and other animals. These insects, along with many scavenging flies, are important vectors of disease, whereas others are pests of cultivated plants. Flies are beneficial, too, functioning as scavengers, predators, or parasites of certain insect pests, as pollinators of plants, and as destroyers of weeds noxious to humans. Dipterous larvae, often called maggots or grubs, are found in many habitats (e.g., in any kind of water, in plant tissue and soil, beneath bark or stones, in decaying plant and animal matter, even in pools of crude petroleum). Adults feed on plant or animal juices or other insects. Diptera fall into three large groups: Nematocera (e.g., crane flies (crane fly), midges (midge), gnats (gnat), mosquitoes (mosquito)), Brachycera (e.g., horse flies (horse fly), robber flies (robber fly), bee flies (bee fly)), and Cyclorrhapha (e.g., flies that breed in vegetable or animal material, both living and dead).

General features

 Flies range in size from midges of little more than one millimetre to robber flies more than seven centimetres long. In general the more primitive flies (e.g., mosquitoes, midges, fungus gnats) are fragile insects with delicate wings. The more advanced flies (e.g., blow flies, houseflies) are generally squat, sturdy, and bristly. They are stronger fliers than midges and gnats.

      Diptera are abundant throughout the world: in the tropics, the subarctic, at sea level, and high on mountains. They colonize beaches to low-tide level, but few go into deeper water, and only one or two midges are truly marine (e.g., Pontomyia natans in the Pacific). On the other hand, migrating flies have been found far out to sea.

Importance

 The abundance, worldwide distribution, and habits of flies combine to make them a nuisance to man. Swarms of midges are a common annoyance. Sweat flies and face flies gather around the eyes, nose, and mouth and also suck blood and pus from wounds and sores. Such flies move constantly from one person to the next and in so doing may at times transfer disease-causing (human disease) organisms.

 The housefly (Musca domestica) can be dangerous because it moves from person to food, drink, garbage, carrion, or feces. By transferring infective organisms from decomposing material or from infected people, houseflies are agents in transmitting typhoid, dysentery, cholera, summer diarrhea in children, and other intestinal virus- and bacteria-caused diseases. Eye gnats are a nuisance in warm countries. Although the larvae are plant feeders, the small active adults feed on physiological secretions, particularly those around the eyes. Other flies pierce the skin of vertebrates and feed on their blood. Mosquitoes, black flies, sand flies, biting midges, and horse flies have evolved mandibles and maxillae that are bladelike, piercing stylets. These piercing organs are developed only in females, which use blood protein in egg production. Males do not feed on blood. Other groups of flies have evolved different mechanisms for obtaining blood. Tsetse flies, stable flies or biting houseflies (Stomoxys), and certain parasitic flies have developed a hard drill-like labium to replace the soft spongelike one. Both males and females have evolved this labium and both feed on blood. A few flies related to the housefly have a spongy proboscis equipped with small teeth for rasping skin around wounds and sores to increase the flow of blood and lymph. Other groups (e.g., robber flies) have developed a piercing proboscis used only against other insects.

      The transmission of disease that occurs through the use of piercing organs such as a proboscis is considered mechanical transmission. Disease-causing organisms in the blood can be picked up by a fly inserting its proboscis into an infected person. The disease may then be transmitted to another person when their skin is pierced by the bloodsucking fly, which injects its saliva into the wound. Without the anticoagulant properties of this saliva, bloodsucking would be impossible since the tiny hole drilled by the proboscis would clog with clotted blood. If the mouthparts are contaminated with blood that contains microorganisms, they can be injected, along with the saliva, into another person. This is called direct transmission of disease and occurs only if the fly, interrupted during a meal, finds a new victim before the microorganisms die. One contagious disease that might be spread this way is tularemia, caused by a bacterium found in wild rodents. Trappers who cut themselves while skinning animals can contract the disease. In North America the bacterium is thought to be transmitted also by the deer fly (Chrysops discalis), common in wooded trapper country.

      Surra, a disease of horses and camels in the Middle East and the Orient, is caused by Trypanosoma evansi and is transmitted by horse flies. Trypanosomes, transmitted by tsetse flies (tsetse fly), cause sleeping sickness in man and nagana in animals throughout tropical Africa. These trypanosomes must spend part of their life cycle in the insect before they can infect a vertebrate; this is an example of cyclic disease transmission. The relationship between the parasitic disease organism and its two hosts, vertebrate and insect, is a result of evolutionary adaptation; however, it is not known whether the trypanosome was originally a fly parasite that spread to man and other vertebrates, or whether it was a human parasite that became adapted to living in a biting fly. An important cyclically transmitted disease is malaria. Plasmodium, the causative agent of human malaria, is an acellular protist nourished by red blood cells in the blood of man. Its reproductive cycles cause recurrent bouts of the disease. Occasionally sexual forms occur in the victim's blood; if this form finds its way into a suitable species of bloodsucking mosquito, another stage of the Plasmodium begins, preparing the organism to infect another human bitten by the mosquito host. Other diseases known to be cyclically transmitted include yellow fever, filariasis, encephalitis, and other viral diseases. It is likely that there are others not yet recognized.

 Fly larvae are serious agricultural pests (pest); they feed on young crop plants, retarding growth or killing them. Cultivated crops, because they provide pests with an almost unlimited food supply within a small area, can be devastated by uncontrolled population growth of a pest. On the other hand, wild food plants, because they are scattered and mixed with other varieties, do not usually provide so abundant a food supply and thus serve as a check on population growth. Frit flies (frit fly) can cause a 20 percent loss of an oat crop, and to the value of the lost oats must be added the cost of control measures necessary to save the remainder. Some crops, notably fruit trees and ornamental shrubs, are a financial loss if slightly disfigured by insect attack, though the life of the plant is not endangered. Fruit, although edible after attack by Mediterranean fruit flies, cannot be sold; a few infested fruits can result in loss of an entire consignment. Larvae of gall midges and leafminers lower the commercial value of ornamental plants.

Natural history

life cycle

General features

  The life cycle of a fly consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Since larval forms, always morphologically distinct from adults, also occupy different habitats, flies in effect live two distinct lives and thus are able to adapt successfully to environmental changes. In some flies (e.g., robber flies) neither the larval nor the adult stage predominates; the larva feeds actively in soil, and adult flies of both sexes catch other insects in flight. Among mosquitoes, black flies, and related bloodsucking flies, the larvae have characteristic structures and live active lives under water; the complex mating process of the adults is followed (in the case of females) by bloodsucking and egg laying.

      There are many flies in which one stage is predominant. Swarms of adult midges (Chironomidae), for example, are conspicuous and troublesome; but the adult midge lives just long enough—usually less than a day—to mate and lay eggs. Thus, most of the life cycle is occupied under water by the larval stage. The larvae are wormlike in appearance. Some are adapted to oxygen-poor situations; the “bloodworm,” for example, which lives in the mud of stagnant waters, uses hemoglobin as a respiratory pigment. Other midge larvae live in silken tubes, either filtering minute organisms from water for food or preying upon larger creatures. Some midge larvae have evolved an elaborate symbiosis, or mutualism, with other aquatic organisms; for example Nostoc (a genus of blue-green algae) and certain midge larvae utilize each other's excreta. Larval life as complex as this is not mere preparation for adult life; rather, the adult stage is a revitalizing and distributory stage for the larval one. The adult stage is of relatively little importance in a few other groups, too.

      At the opposite extreme are tsetse flies (Glossina) and three families of pupipara parasites (e.g., Hippoboscidae, which feed on the blood of mammals and birds; both Nycteribiidae and Streblidae feed only on bat blood). In these families a single egg is produced at one time and hatched internally. The larva, retained and nourished in a kind of womb, is expelled when it has matured and immediately forms a pupa. Thus, these flies have no independent larval life. Since the pupa is immobile, the active life of the fly is passed as an adult. Most Hippoboscidae and Streblidae, and all tsetse flies, have wings and usually migrate to new hosts, but some species of these families, and all Nycteribiidae, cannot fly and often are wingless. Wingless flies can be identified as flies only after detailed morphological examination.

Eggs (egg)

      The majority of flies lay eggs, which hatch into tiny larvae after a few hours or several days. The number of eggs laid by a female varies from 1 to about 250; however, a number of successive batches may be laid. The greenbottle fly (Lucilia sericata) has laid nearly 2,000 eggs in captivity; however, the total is probably fewer than 1,000 in the natural state when time and energy are lost looking for suitable places to lay. Egg-laying sites, chosen instinctively by the females, are related closely to larval habitats. Since many fly larvae feed in soft organic materials, many females have developed telescopic ovipositors, formed from the last three or four abdominal segments. The female uses the ovipositor to press the eggs into a mass of decaying material. Blow flies and houseflies push their eggs between the membranes of meat or into any convenient cavity in decaying organic material. The small fruit flies (Drosophila), which lay in rotting fruits and fermenting materials, also have this type of ovipositor; however, the large fruit flies (e.g., Mediterranean fruit fly), which lay eggs in the rind of growing fruits, have a stiffer ovipositor. Elaborate ovipositors found in the robber flies are used to push eggs into the interstices of flower heads and the axils of grasses, sometimes even into plant tissues, to conceal them and protect them from drying. When hatched, the larvae drop to the ground and burrow under the soil.

Larvae

      Fly larvae have one common characteristic: all lack true, jointed, thoracic legs. Many fly larvae have “false legs” (prolegs or pseudopods) similar to those that support the fleshy abdomen of a caterpillar. Flies, much more versatile in this respect than caterpillars, can have prolegs around any body segment. Prolegs help the larvae crawl through narrow spaces or push through soil.

      The evolutionary trend among fly larvae has been toward structural simplification; thus, generally, larvae of primitive flies are more structured than are larvae of more highly evolved flies, which show greater physiological versatility. Larvae of most members of the suborder Nematocera (see below Annotated classification (dipteran)) have a well-developed head, with antennae, palpi, and complex mouthparts similar to those of many adult insects. Often they are so structurally adapted to their special way of life that they are unable to adapt to any other. This is especially true among aquatic larvae (e.g., mosquitoes) and perhaps reaches the extreme in mountain midge larvae, which live in rushing torrents and crawl on submerged rocks. Their body segments are equipped with clinging processes and suckers.

      In contrast to highly specialized larvae, about half the fly species have larvae known as maggots. The maggot has lost the complicated head capsule of primitive flies; its pointed anterior end contains one or a pair of mouth hooks. The blunt posterior end has a pair of posterior spiracles (external airholes) that appear to the naked eye as black spots. Microscopically the spiracles are seen as a complex pattern of slits or pores that are useful in distinguishing species.

      Although maggots show structural uniformity, they are diverse physiologically. Most maggots feed on decaying organic matter, but there are wide differences in the food preferences of different flies in forensic studies. Larvae of the frit fly of oats and the gout fly of barley are maggots of flies that belong to the plant-feeding family Chloropidae. The hessian fly of wheat is the destructive larva of Mayetiola (Phytophaga) destructor of the nematoceran family Cecidomyiidae (the gall midges (gall midge)). Although the external structure of most nematoceran larvae is complex, the structure of the gall midges, which live completely immersed in plant tissue, has evolved in the direction of simplification; gall midges are among the most difficult fly larvae to identify. Also known as gall gnats because feeding larvae cause the formation of disfiguring galls on leaves or stems, gall midges harm many kinds of plants. Thus they have evolved a simplified structure and physiological diversity regarding food plants as have maggots of more advanced flies.

      The best-known blow flies are sheep blow flies, principally species of Lucilia. Maggots of L. sericata, for example, feed on small dead animals and in abattoirs and garbage cans; they oviposit in soiled wool around the anus of sheep or in the pus exuding from scratches and wounds, where they are important agents of sheep strike disease. These maggots sometimes occur in soil near buildings in cities; their food source is not known. Eight “waves” of maggots have been distinguished; each wave attacks dead animals in a strict sequence as decay progresses from the newly dead corpse through rigor and putrefaction to mummification. Although some maggots appear only during a clearly defined stage of animal decomposition, the large voracious maggots of many blow flies feed on any animal matter, including living tissues.

Molts (molt) and larval stages

      Among insects in general, the evolutionary tendency has been toward decreasing the number of molts during development, and flies are no exception. The number of larval stages, or instars, is six or seven in black flies (Simuliidae) and four in most other Nematocera. Along the second line of evolution of flies, Brachycera have from five to eight instars while the maggots of the most advanced flies (Cyclorrhapha) have only three. One or two species have no molts. Sometimes molts occur before the larva hatches from the egg. Muscidae, for example, are arranged in three groups according to whether they are trimorphic (i.e., have three free larval instars), dimorphic (i.e., pass the first instar in the egg, have two free larval instars), or monomorphic (i.e., pass the first two instars in the egg, have one free larval instar). Monomorphic larvae are always predatory; trimorphic and dimorphic larvae feed first on decaying matter (are saprophagous), but they may or may not be predatory in their final instar.

pupa

      The external features of the adult fly (i.e., eyes, antennae, wings, legs) are clearly visible in the pupa. The pupa, however, is not always exposed to view; it may be enclosed either in a cocoon of extraneous matter (e.g., soil, or silk, or a mixture of the two) or in a puparium, which is a case formed by the hardening of the larval skin. A puparium is formed in flies of the family Stratiomyidae and others that have maggots as larvae (all Cyclorrhapha). Many families of flies form cocoons sporadically; the cocoon has evolved as an adaptive device that provides extra protection to the pupa. The pupae of mosquitoes, of black flies (Simuliidae), and of a few aquatic midges swim actively. Many pupae that lie in soil or in wood have developed spines in order to help them work their way to the surface just before emergence of the adult insects.

Adult

      The adult fly emerges from the pupa soft and crumpled with a colourless skin (integument) and perfectly formed (though not fully pigmented) hairs and bristles. The newly emergent adult swallows air to expand its body and wings and to force blood through its body. In the more advanced flies of the group Schizophora (see below), the ptilinum, an inflatable membranous sac in the head, is used to aid this process. The ptilinum shrivels away after it has performed its function; however, it leaves behind the ptilinal suture, a horseshoe-shaped groove that runs over and beside the antennal sockets and is only found in Schizophora.

Ecology

      It has been said that there is hardly any life-supporting medium in which dipterous larvae have not been observed. It is not possible to discuss all dipteran habitats, but the annotated classification below provides many examples. Maggots, however, are the most important larvae, because they play an essential role in breaking down and redistributing organic matter. The waste products excreted by the larvae provide nutrients for molds, fungi, and plants. In addition, the bodies of larvae, pupae, and many adult flies are an important food source for higher animals. Examples are aquatic larvae of midges and mosquitoes, which are staple food for fish. The terrestrial maggots of many flies also have a role in food chains (food chain). Since a blow fly can lay one to two thousand eggs, the blow fly population would increase calamitously if more than a few of them survived. Most of the larvae die of malnutrition, desiccation, or drowning, or are consumed by birds. The adult flies are snapped up by birds, small mammals, frogs, and toads. Swallows, swifts, and martins devour large numbers of flies that have been carried up into the air by convection currents. Thus, the population is maintained at a constant level.

      The most fundamental importance of flies, therefore, lies not in the few familiar families that contain mosquitoes, tsetse flies, houseflies, and other nuisance insects, but rather in the large numbers of unfamiliar species that are an essential element in the food chains upon which all life depends.

Form and function

External features of adult

General appearance

      The thorax, abdomen, and legs of adult flies vary from long to short; the appearance of the fly is functional as well as decorative. Sometimes the bright colour and pattern of many flies is metallic (e.g., blow flies), but most often the fly is covered with a fine coating called tomentum or dusting. Many flies, particularly those of more highly evolved families, are bristly; and the strongest bristles have a precise location, particularly on the thorax. The arrangement of bristles and the identification method based on them is called chaetotaxy.

Wings (wing)

      Adult flies have only one pair of wings, on the mesothorax or second thoracic segment. The hind wings, modified into halteres, have a stalk and a knob, or club, that may be large and heavy relative to the size of the fly. The halteres vibrate up and down in time with the wings and act as gyroscopes in flight. If the fly yaws, rolls, or pitches during flight, the halteres, maintaining their original plane of movement, twist at their bases, where special nerve cells detect the twist and cause the fly to correct its flight attitude.

      The wings of flies have a defined pattern of veins; each has a name and characteristic location, often of taxonomic value. Few true flies have a reticulation (i.e., network of small veins) such as those in many other insects that are mistakenly called flies (e.g., mayflies, dragonflies, dobsonflies). Primitive flies tend to have complex wing venation, while advanced ones have reduced and simplified venation. Some of the small midges (e.g., Cecidomyiidae, Sciaridae, Mycetophilidae) have reduced wing venation also. Reduction or loss of wings occurs in many families, particularly those that inhabit windy places (e.g., mountains, islands) or caves, or that are external parasites among fur and feathers.

Eyes (eye, human)

      The eyes of flies often occupy most of the surface of the head, especially in males, where the eyes may meet in the middle line (holoptic). In female flies, with few exceptions, the eyes do not meet (dichoptic). In some families, notably robber flies and small acalyptrate flies, both sexes are dichoptic. Parasitic flies, or those that live in secluded places, may have very small eyes or none at all. Typically, however, the compound eyes of flies contain many facets; for example, the housefly has 4,000 facets in each eye, about average for insects.

Mouthparts

      The mouthparts of flies are adapted for sucking. Most flies have maxillae; many also have mandibles, elongate blades that overlie a groove in the labium and form a tubular channel for sucking liquids. In some females (e.g., bloodsucking flies, mosquitoes) the mandibles act as piercing stylets for drawing blood. Mandibles became functionless or were lost entirely relatively early in fly evolution and therefore bloodsucking families that evolved later had to develop other piercing methods. Tsetse flies (tsetse fly) and stable flies use the hardened labium; robber flies and dance flies use the hypopharynx; and Dolichopodidae (small, metallic green flies with very long legs) envelop prey in the spongy labella of the labium and crush it with specially evolved teeth. Most flies suck their food; the few exceptions have reduced mouthparts and possibly do not feed at all as adults. Thus the food of flies must be liquid or solids that can be liquefied by saliva and stomach juices. Flies also have a pair of labial palpi equipped with sensory cells that act as organs of touch, taste, and smell. The palpi and the antennae are essential for examining possible food sources and suitable sites for egg laying.

Antennae

      All flies have antennae. Members of the suborder Nematocera (e.g., crane flies, various midges, and gnats) have whiplike antennae with two basal segments (scape and pedicel) and a flagellum of many similar segments. All other flies, properly called Brachycera, or short horns because the flagellum is contracted into a compound third segment, have remnants of the terminal flagellar segments remaining as a pencillike style or a bristle-like arista. Considerable antennal structural differences exist among related genera and species.

Larval features

      Larvae of flies have no wings, show no external traces of wingbuds (endopterygote insects), and do not have segmented thoracic legs. Larvae of primitive flies (most Nematocera and Brachycera) have a well-developed head, with chewing mouthparts. Evolution has favoured reduction of the head capsule and replacement of chewing mouthparts with a pair of mouth hooks that move in a vertical plane. Larvae with adaptive external structures (e.g., prolegs) generally belong to the Nematocera or Brachycera. The maggots of the Cyclorrhapha have little external structure other than black mouth hooks and the posterior spiracles. Although a few of these larvae show secondary complexities (e.g., some aquatic larvae of hover flies and shore flies), most cannot be identified beyond the family level.

Nutritional (nutrition) requirements

Adults

      Nutrition involves balance between feeding (feeding behaviour) habits of larval and adult flies. Primary feeding occurs during the larval stage; adult feeding serves to compensate the shortcomings of larval nourishment. At one extreme are nonbiting midges, with larvae that vigorously filter microorganisms from water; the adults do not feed. Related to nonbiting midges are biting midges, mosquitoes, and black flies; adult females in these families must supplement an insufficient larval diet. Although one batch of eggs occasionally is laid without a meal of blood, blood is necessary to mature a second batch. Flies that lay one batch of eggs without blood are autogenous; those that cannot lay at all without blood are anautogenous. One species can have both types, possibly as a result of shifting populations or races arising from natural selection. For example, in the far north large populations of biting flies (e.g., mosquitoes, biting midges, black flies, horse flies) occur during the short Arctic summer; obviously there are insufficient numbers of warm-blooded animals to provide food. If the flies find blood, they use it; if not, they still survive.

      Most adult flies visit flowers, which provide water, nectar, and pollen. Pollen, more difficult for a sucking insect to obtain than blood, is rich in protein and is an important source of this nutrient. Certain hover flies crush pollen grains between hardened portions of the labella before swallowing them; many flies actively probe into flowers, covering their heads and eyes with pollen grains. nectar from flowers contains carbohydrates, and most adult flies use this syrupy liquid. Although their role in pollination is less well known than that of bees, flies are important pollinators of flowers. Some plants (e.g., spurges) are often covered with small flies of different families. Small flies also feed on honeydew from aphids (see section on Homoptera). Although the name Drosophila means “lover of dew,” this insect sucks water and any other obtainable fluid. Flies feed on dung and liquid products of either animal or vegetable decay. They obtain nutrients from farmyard manure heaps and garbage dumps. These places also harbour many larvae that feed either directly on available organic food or are carnivorous on other larvae. A familiar example is the yellow dung fly; adults prey on other insects visiting the dung.

Larvae

 The adaptability of flies is evident in the wide range of foods that larvae eat. Apart from parasites, the most specialized feeders are larvae that live in plant tissues (e.g., leafmining Agromyzidae, many restricted to one plant species or group). Generally agricultural and horticultural pests (e.g., cabbage root fly) are versatile species, feeding on a variety of wild hosts and modifying their diets when presented with concentrated plantings of commercial crops. Many carnivorous fly larvae (e.g., asilids) probably live in soil and eat vegetable or animal matter, whichever is available. Since adult asilids (robber flies), however, feed on other insects, the larval nourishment is presumed to be inadequate. Some larvae, particularly maggots, that feed on vegetable matter during the first and second instars, become carnivorous during the third instar, when most of the growth takes place.

      Larval respiration is adapted to the medium in which the larvae live. Although a few parasitic larvae (e.g., Pipunculidae, parasitic in froghoppers, and Drosophilidae, internal parasites of scale insects) get oxygen through the skin, most dipterous larvae need a tracheal system to distribute oxygen. Primitively, the tracheal system probably opened exteriorly by paired spiracles on each segment of the body. The soil dwellers, Bibionidae and Scatopsidae, retain this system, although most families have kept spiracles only on the thorax (one pair) and one at the tip of the abdomen. Even these are closed in some aquatic larvae (e.g., luminous larvae of some fungus gnats and larvae of biting midges). However, mosquito larvae and those of most other water-living flies surface frequently to renew their oxygen supplies. Some larvae pierce the stems of underwater plants to obtain oxygen formed as a result of photosynthesis. Maggots of Cyclorrhapha rely heavily on complex posterior spiracles. Pupae respire through prothoracic spiracles that are sometimes equipped with long tubes extending outside the cocoon or puparium.

Evolution and paleontology

      Diptera belong to the panorpoid complex, which includes Mecoptera (scorpionflies), Trichoptera (caddisflies), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Siphonaptera (fleas), and Diptera (true flies). All are believed to have evolved from an ancestor that lived in moss; four-winged insects that resemble crane flies have been preserved as fossils in Permian deposits. Strata of the Lias Period (Lower Jurassic) contain many true midges; early Brachycera began to appear in Mesozoic; Cyclorrhapha appear in the Cretaceous. By the end of the Eocene Epoch, most modern families of flies had evolved. Flies in Oligocene amber and copal are similar to living genera.

Classification

Distinguishing taxonomic features

      The wings (wing) are the most distinctive feature of Diptera; they consist of a pair of functional forewings and reduced hind wings called halteres that serve as balancing organs. Except for male scale insects, only Diptera have hind wings modified into halteres. The thorax consists almost entirely of mesothorax filled with muscles that operate the forewings. This feature is useful in identifying wingless flies. The single pair of wings also distinguishes Diptera from other insects called flies (e.g., caddisflies, dragonflies), while the posterior halteres separate the Diptera from other insects that have one pair of wings (e.g., some mayflies and beetles).

      Division into suborders is based on structure of antennae and wing venation. Another major feature is chaetotaxy, the arrangement of strong bristles, many in fixed positions and given individual or group names. Separation of Diptera into families is based on habitats and habits (e.g., feeding) of larvae and adults. Genera and species are distinguished by details of head structure, shape and degree of separation of eyes, profile of head, and shape and proportions of leg segments. Abdominal shape often determines characteristic appearance of a genus, but it is difficult to define; the shape varies as the insect is starved, well fed, or pregnant (viviparous flies, such as tsetse).

Annotated classification

Order Diptera

 Size range 1 mm to 7.5 cm; wings, when present, number 2; hind wings reduced to halteres; sucking mouthparts; 85,000 species; worldwide distribution; diverse habitats and diets in both larvae and adults.

      Suborder Nematocera

 Antennae consist of scape, pedicel, and flagellum with numerous similar segments; maxillary palpi with more than 3 segments, often pendulous; anal cell of wing open; larvae usually with well-defined head, mandibles horizontally opposed.

      Family Tipulidae (crane flies)

 Elongated body, wings, legs; slow-flying; larvae in soil (leatherjackets), moss, rotten wood, mud, fresh water, littoral, marine.

      Family Mycetophilidae (fungus gnats)

 Fragile, slender; flit about in damp, shady places, among decaying vegetation.

      Family Sciaridae

 Similar to fungus gnats but more compact, more often indoors.

      Family Bibionidae (march flies in Northern Hemisphere)

 Compact, well-armoured flies; strong spurs on legs; often abundant on spring blossoms; larvae in soil, sometimes found in a tangled mass near roots of plants.

      Family Scatopsidae

 Similar to march flies, more often indoors.

      Family Cecidomyiidae (gall midges)

 Tiny flies seldom seen as adults; shapeless larvae burrow into plant tissues, cause formation of plant galls, and deform leaves, stems, and roots; some horticultural and agricultural pests.

      Family Psychodidae (moth flies)

 Tiny, with hairy wings; often seen singly in kitchens, on windows above sinks; some larvae numerous in sewage sedimentation tanks; larvae mostly aquatic.

      Family Phlebotomidae (sand flies)

 Closely related to Psychodidae; adult females suck blood, carry dermal and intestinal leishmaniasis and sandfly fever.

      Family Ceratopogonidae (biting midges)

 Tiny, often with spotted wings (e.g., Culicoides); adult females with irritating bite suck blood, carry some parasitic worms; Forcipomyia suck blood of insects.

      Family Chironomidae (nonbiting midges)

 Related to biting midges, but females do not suck blood; larvae aquatic; important fish food; adults swarm near water.

      Family Simuliidae (black flies)

 Also buffalo gnats; small, humpbacked, with short antennae; females suck blood, carry parasitic worms that cause “river blindness”; forms nodules under skin; larvae aquatic, filter feeders, attached to stones, underwater vegetation, or freshwater crustaceans.

      Family Culicidae (mosquitoes)

 Small; elongated; proboscis prominent; palpi often long; best recognized by scaly wings; many females suck blood, carry human diseases (Anophelini carry malaria; Culicini carry yellow fever, filariasis, dengue, viral encephalitis); larvae and pupae aquatic.

      Suborder Brachycera-Orthorrhapha

 Name usually shortened to Brachycera; flagellum of antennae nearly always fused into a compound 3rd segment, remaining diminutive segments form a stumpy “style” or bristle-like arista; anal cell of wing narrowed, nearly always closed on or before wing margin; palpi seldom with more than 3 segments, often 2 or 1, held forward (porrect); larvae usually with well-defined head, mandibles move vertically or parallel, cannot be opposed; adult escapes from pupa by a rectangular slit (“Orthorrhapha”).

      Family Stratiomyidae (soldier flies)

 Colourful flies, found resting on vegetation with wings closed; males sometimes dance in air; larvae sometimes elongate, aquatic, active, carnivorous (Stratiomys); others in decaying vegetation (Hermetia).

      Family Rhagionidae (snipe flies)

 Inconspicuous, usually rest on vegetation; some females (e.g., Symphoromyia) suck blood; most larvae in soil or in water (some Atherix females form egg-laying swarms); some make pits in dust, like ant lions (Vermileo).

      Family Pantophthalmidae

 Large, archaic flies, now found only in tropical forests of South America; wood-boring larval grubs sometimes damage commercial timber.

      Family Tabanidae (horseflies, deerflies; march flies in Australia)

 Squat flies with big heads, brilliantly coloured eyes; some females (Chrysops, Tabanus, Haematopota) suck blood, are livestock pests; many primitive genera feed only from flowers; larvae in mud or wet soil, either vegetarian (Chrysops) or carnivorous (Tabanus, Haematopota).

      Family Asilidae (robber flies)

 Adults catch other insects in flight, suck their blood; size varies from a few millimetres to 8 centimetres (longest of all flies); characteristic “moustache” of bristles probably protects eyes from damage by fly's victim; larvae in soil or wood; eat any food.

      Family Bombyliidae (bee flies)

 Hairy, scaly; superficially resemble bees, hover over flowers in similar way; often brightly patterned, pattern destroyed by rubbing scales; larvae scavenge in bee and wasp nests or are parasitic (e.g., locust egg pods, tsetse pupae).

      Family Scenopinidae (window flies)

 Tiny black flies, on windows indoors; develop from larvae in carpets, feed on flea and clothes moth larvae; natural habitat, bird nests or similar dry debris.

      Family Therevidae (stiletto flies)

 Adults resemble Asilidae, but not predatory; larvae like Scenopinidae, elongated, worm-like, carnivorous but sometimes attack plant roots.

      Family Nemestrinidae

 Rather like Bombyliidae; larvae parasitic in grasshoppers, locusts, perhaps beetles; remarkable for beautiful hovering.

      Family Acroceridae (balloon flies)

 Grotesque; abdomen swollen, thorax small, head tiny; larvae parasitic in spiders.

      Family Empididae (dance flies)

 Adults suck insect blood, also feed from flowers. Hilara darts over water, catches small insects; larvae in many habitats (e.g., marine and freshwater mud, decaying vegetation, fungi, running sap from trees).

      Family Dolichopodidae (long-legged flies)

 Tiny, metallic, bristly flies; large numbers sit on leaves in wet places; predatory on other insects; larvae like Empididae, elongated, with little external head structure, same habitats.

      Suborder Brachycera-Cyclorrhapha

 Usually shortened to Cyclorrhapha; characteristically form pupa inside last larval skin as a puparium; adult fly pushes off a circular cap, hence the name Cyclorrhapha; most families (Schizophora) with a ptilinum (membranous sac inside head), which emerges from a horseshoe-shaped ptilinal suture (identifies adult Schizophora) above antennae, is puffed in and out to help fly escape from puparium or soil or to inflate fly's body; ptilinum atrophies and only ptilinal suture remains; a small group of Aschiza, without ptilinal suture, are recognized chiefly by their wing venation.

      Series Aschiza

 

      Family Lonchopteridae

 Little known; notable for parthenogenesis; few species; worldwide; sometimes abundant.

      Family Phoridae (coffin flies)

 Tiny flies sometimes numerous indoors; larvae live in any organic debris rich in protein or nitrogenous decay products and scavenge in nests of wasps, bees, ants, termites; breed in carrion; many adults wingless or with short wings (brachypterous).

      Family Pipunculidae

 Tiny flies; head spherical, noted for precise hovering; larvae parasitic in Homoptera.

      Family Platypezidae

 Small flies; peculiar legs; rarely seen; appear to dance in smoke of wood fires; larvae live in fungi.

      Family Syrphidae (hover flies)

 Vena spuria in wing runs between third and fourth veins; familiar everywhere; hover over flowers, settle on leaves; some larvae aquatic (“rat-tailed” maggots); larvae of many species feed on aphids on plant stems and leaves.

      Family Conopidae (thick-headed flies)

 Wasplike flies; larvae parasitic in bees and wasps; may be a separate evolutionary line.

      Series Schizophora

 All flies with a ptilinal suture in head; larvae with no external head structure, mouth hooks visible through cuticle, one pair of prothoracic spiracles and one pair of posterior spiracles, each with either three slits or a mass of small pores; larvae with fore end pointed and hind end truncate are called maggots; larvae with both ends blunt and fleshy, with bulges and tracts of spines, are called grubs.

      Section Acalyptrata

 Thoracic squamae (i.e., calypters that join base of wing to thorax) are small or evanescent; small soft-bodied flies; major families well established; placement of genera uncertain; families can be grouped according to food preferences of larvae.

      Flies breeding in vegetable compost and dung

 

      Family Lauxaniidae

 Larvae in decaying vegetable matter.

      Family Helomyzidae

 Like Lauxaniidae; most generalized of Acalyptrata.

      Family Dryomyzidae

 Like Lauxaniidae, but with wider range of food, including fungi; yellow flies often seen in winter.

      Family Chyromyiidae

 Yellow flies, 1 or 2 millimetres long; breed in debris of bird nests, mammal burrows, caves, cellars; seen singly on windows indoors.

      Family Celyphidae (beetle flies)

 Scutellum enormously enlarged until it covers both abdomen and wings when at rest; tropical dung breeding.

      Family Mormotomyiidae

 Contains one wingless, African species; looks like a spider; known from only one locality in Kenya; breeds in bat dung.

      Family Coelopidae (kelp flies, seaweed flies)

 Breed in wrack (i.e., heaps of decaying seaweed stranded on beaches) chiefly in temperate countries; adults of some species attracted by trichloroethylene; sometimes pests.

      Flies breeding in animal refuse, dung, carrion

 

      Family Sepsidae

 Small, black, roundhead flies, sometimes with spots at wing tips; may breed to infestation level in sewage sludge.

      Family Piophilidae (cheese skippers)

 Larvae in cheese, ham, cured meats, dried fruits, preserved skins and pelts; natural habitat in mummifying carrion; called “skippers” because larvae move both by crawling and “skipping” (i.e., gripping the tip of the abdomen with mouth hooks and flipping the body through a relatively long distance).

      Family Micropezidae

 Large, long-legged flies; often with conspicuously patterned, blue-black wings; spectacular in tropics.

      Family Sphaeroceridae

 Tiny, black-brown flies; first tarsal segments of hind legs swollen; abundant throughout world in dunglike materials; some members live in seaweed on beaches; many short-winged or wingless species.

      Family Sciomyzidae

 Aquatic larvae eat both living and dead snails; may be valuable as controlling agents for injurious snails.

      Family Milichiidae

 Breed in dung; adults attach to predatory insects and spiders and feed on them; called “insect jackals”; Madiza glabra sometimes numerous indoors.

      Family Carnidae

 Scavenge in nests and burrows. Adults of Carnus hemapterus scavenge among bird feathers, break off wings.

      Family Neottiophilidae

 Nest-breeding; larvae suck blood of nestling birds.

      Family Thyreophoridae

 Among the rarest of flies; larvae in dead bodies of large animals.

      Family Chamaemyiidae

 Predatory larvae; known as controlling agents of aphids.

      Family Braulidae (bee louse)

 Braula caeca, wingless fly, lives in beehives; larva feeds on wax and pollen stores; adult attaches to bee, may solicit nutritious saliva like other members of bee colony.

      Flies with plant-feeding larvae

 

      Family Ephydridae (shore flies)

 Transitional; wide range of larval habitats; no substance unpalatable for larvae (e.g., algae, sewage, excrement, carrion, urine, brine, hot springs, tar pools); carnivorous petroleum fly (Psilopa petrolei) lives in pools of crude petroleum seepage preying on trapped insects; many larvae feed in terrestrial and aquatic plants.

      Family Diopsidae (stalkeyed flies)

 Some larvae live in decaying plant tissue, others mine in living plants.

      Family Chloropidae (frit flies)

 Most important plant feeders; includes economic pests of cereal and other crops.

      Families Opomyzidae, Geomyzidae, Psilidae

 Small, usually yellow or grayish flies, plant feeders; Psila rosae, the carrot fly, an agricultural pest.

      Family Agromyzidae (leafminers)

 Larvae feed in parenchymatous tissue of leaves, render epidermis transparent and produce either serpentine or “blotch” mines; rarely cause severe damage, but disfigure ornamental trees and shrubs.

      Flies with fruit-feeding larvae

 

      Family Trypetidae (large fruit flies)

 Form galls in certain flowers particularly Compositae; many Trypetidae larvae feed in living fruits, and ruin them; now worldwide distribution; economic damage by several members (e.g., the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata) has resulted in worldwide quarantine laws to regulate entry of fruit into countries.

      Family Drosophilidae (small fruit flies)

 Larvae in decaying and fermenting fruit or any sweet substance; includes Drosophila melanogaster, used in genetic studies.

      A number of smaller families have been formed to accommodate genera closely related to the two above. Otitidae (Ortalidae) and Lonchaeidae are the most clearly defined. Others such as Ulidiidae, Pallopteridae, Phytalmidae, Camillidae, and Diastatidae are debatable.

      Section Calyptrata

 Characterized by large squamae (calypters that join base of wing to thorax); Scatophagidae are transitional.

      Family Scatophagidae (dung flies)

 Live around dung, other decaying materials; many also predacious as larvae and as adults.

      Family Muscidae (housefly and allies)

 Many species include the housefly; some larvae carnivorous, especially in third instar; breed in decaying vegetable matter or dung; larvae of Fannia, the “lesser housefly” like materials soaked in urine; economically important muscid larvae feed on plant stems and roots; subfamily (sometimes a separate family) Anthomyiinae contains dipteran plant pests; stable fly, Stomoxys, (biting proboscis in both sexes) may be placed in a separate family, Stomoxyidae; tsetse fly Glossina, confined to Africa, peculiar structurally and biologically, sometimes placed in the family Glossinidae, occurred in North America in the Miocene.

      Family Calliphoridae (blow flies)

 Some bristly flies with carrion-feeding maggots; common blow flies, Calliphora (bluebottles), feed as larvae in dead meat; Lucilia (greenbottles) sometimes attack living flesh; screw-worms (e.g., Cochliomyia, Callitroga) are dangerous feeders in living tissue.

      Family Cuterebridae

 Offshoot of Calliphoridae above; larvae are parasitic in rodents; one larva, Dermatobia hominis (human bot fly) also attacks man; eggs sometimes attached to mosquitoes and other biting flies and carried to their prospective prey.

      Family Oestridae (bots and warbles)

 Larvae live under skin, in nose, and in other head cavities of large mammals; includes the sheep nostril fly (Oestrus ovis), warble flies of cattle (Hypoderma bovis and other species).

      Family Gasterophilidae (horse bots)

 Larvae live in stomachs of horses, zebras, rhinos and elephants, attached to intestinal lining; relationship with other bot flies problematical; currently classified with other bot flies.

      Family Sarcophagidae (flesh flies)

 Large, gray and black; common around refuse dumps; larval habits diverse, in living or dead animal matter; many viviparous species.

      Family Tachinidae (tachinid flies)

 Ecologically important in balance of nature because larvae are parasites in other insects, spiders, woodlice, and centipedes; employed in biological control of pests.

      Section Pupipara

 Disputed group, families may merely be convergent in habit; lay living larvae, adults of both sexes feed exclusively on blood.

      Family Hippoboscidae (louse flies)

 Feed as adults on blood of mammals and birds; many fly, some have wings reduced or lost (e.g., sheep ked, Melophagus ovinus).

      Family Streblidae (bat flies)

 Distinct, rounded head, wings often functional but fly little; cling closely to host.

      Family Nycteribiidae (wingless bat flies)

 Always wingless; thorax weakened and de-sclerotized; live exclusively on bats; scarcely recognizable as flies.

Critical appraisal

      Although there is general agreement concerning major groups of Diptera, disputes concerning relatively minor problems are not uncommon. After extensive study of relationships among families, probable lines of evolution within the order were traced in 1958. The order was surveyed according to the evidence of paleontology, and many fossil flies were illustrated in 1964; this resulted in subdividing the order into an unusually large number of families. Evolution of flesh-feeding maggots and classification and probable evolution of Oestridae has also been investigated.

Harold Oldroyd

Additional Reading

J.R. Busvine, Insects and Hygiene, 3rd ed. (1980), comprehensive survey of insects, hygiene, and insecticides; C.N. Colyer and C.O. Hammond, Flies of the British Isles, 2nd ed. (1968), limited to British flies but general application; C.H. Curran, Families and Genera of North American Diptera, 2nd rev. ed. (1965), useful keys for primary identification; M. Demerec (ed.), Biology of Drosophila (1950, reissued 1965), accounts of “normal” development so that experimental results can be assessed; W. Hennig, Die Larvenformen der Dipteren, 3 vol. in 2 (1948–52, reissued in 3 vol., 1968), the only comprehensive account of fly larvae, with references to published descriptions; M.T. James, “The Flies that Cause Myiasis in Man,” U.S. Dept. Agric. Misc. Publ. 631 (1947), useful handbook on larvae that infest the human body; E. Lindner, Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region (1924, parts still appearing), comprehensive account of flies with much information applicable throughout the world; I.M. Mackerras, “The Zoogeography of the Diptera,” Aust. J. Sci., 12:157–161 (1950); H. Oldroyd, Diptera: Introduction and Key to Families, in the “Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects Series” (1970); Collecting, Preserving and Studying Insects, rev. ed. (1973); The Natural History of Flies (1964), the only comprehensive account of flies in English; Insects and Their World, 3rd ed. (1973), simple account of the basic principles of structure and function in insects; and Elements of Entomology: An Introduction to the Study of Insects (1970), general reading about basic relationships of insects; L.S. West, The Housefly: Its Natural History, Medical Importance and Control (1951), comprehensive treatise on every aspect of housefly biology. More specialized references on classification may be found in W. Hennig, “Die Familien der Diptera Schizophora und ihre phylogenetischen Verwandschaftsbeziehungen,” Beitr. Ent., 8:505–688 (1958); and in F. Zumpt, “Some Remarks on the Classification of the Oestridae,” J. Ent. Soc. S. Africa, 20:154–161 (1957).Harold Oldroyd

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