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The
Diversity of The World of Life
True
Insects (Insecta)
True Flies & Maggots
(Diptera)
Representatives
True
Flies, including Mosquitoes, Midges, & Gnats
Maggots
Biology
APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF KNOWN SPECIES WORLDWIDE
Over 100,000
DESCRIPTION
True flies are small- to large-sized and fairly soft-bodied.
The antennae are often short. The compound eyes
are large. The mouthparts are
usually piercing-sucking, sometimes (as in the house fly) sponging, and
rarely absent. Wings are present
in almost all species of true flies (One of the few exceptions is the parasitic
"sheep-ked" -- reddish brown, about 1/4" long, and flat from top-to-bottom).
When present, there is just one pair of wings, the forewings, which
are always membranous; the
hindwings are replaced by a pair of "halteres" (gyroscopic
knobs), used for balance in flight.
METAMORPHOSIS
The larvae are usually "maggots" -- legless,
wormlike, and without a distinct head.
The pupa of some species is encased within a "puparium", the
hardened skin of the next-to-the-last larval "instar" (growth
stage between molts).
HABITATS
The larvae live in water, in soil, in rotting matter, or in
plants or animals. The adult
flies are usually found near the larval habitat, on flowers, or on or near
animal "hosts".
FOODS
Many maggots feed on or in living or rotting plants or
animals or materials from them. Many
adult flies feed on such liquids as flower nectar, and others suck blood
from us vertebrates.
DAMAGES/BENEFITS
Many maggots (as of blow flies) are valuable decomposers of
natural wastes, such as the dung or dead bodies of animals.
Many of the larvae (such as the seedcorn maggot) feed on
crop plants and may infect them with diseases.
The larvae of some flies (as of small fruit flies) attack
stored foods.
Some larvae (such as cattle grubs) burrow through the
bodies of domestic animals and may even cause paralysis.
Many adult flies (such as common, hovering, bee-like flower
flies) are valuable pollinators of flowering plants.
Many flies (such as the larvae of flower flies or the
adults of often beelike robber flies) are parasites or predators of other
insects, often pests.
Many flies (such as mosquitoes, horse flies, and house
flies) suck the blood of, irritate the skin or eyes of, and/or spread
diseases of us vertebrates; in particular, malaria,
carried by certain mosquitoes, plagues hundreds of millions of human
beings at any given time. Some buzzing flies even cause anxiety-related weight-loss or stampedes
of cattle.
Good sanitation is
the first step in avoiding many fly-borne diseases.
Finally, some flies are important as foods for such
vertebrates as toads or birds; and small fruit flies (with giant
chromosomes) have proved
uniquely useful in laboratory experiments with genetics.
True
Insects (Insecta)
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