Related topics: fruit flies

Fossils of giant pterosaurs found in Transylvania

(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers in the U.K. has identified fossils found in the Transylvania area in Romania as those of a pterosaur they have named Hatzegopteryx—a giant, muscle-bound flying reptile that could eat prey ...

Q&A: One of the world's worst pests attacks California

One of the world's worst pests is infesting crops all over California. There are seven active quarantines spanning the length of the state, but experts say those affecting San Bernardino and Riverside counties are especially ...

Gut bacteria tell the brain what animals should eat

Neuroscientists have, for the first time, shown that gut bacteria "speak" to the brain to control food choices in animals. In a study publishing April 25 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, researchers identified two ...

A new, flying jellyfish-like machine (w/ Video)

Up, up in the sky: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a... jellyfish? That's what researchers have built—a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of those boneless, pulsating, water-dwelling creatures.

How seeing corpses reduces the lifespan of flies

Researchers led by Christi Gendron at the University of Michigan have found the link between death perception and accelerated aging in flies. Their new study, published June 13 in the open access journal PLOS Biology shows ...

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Fly

Nematocera (includes Eudiptera) Brachycera

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (Greek: di = two, and pteron = wing), possessing a single pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax.

The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name, such as mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, stoneflies, whiteflies, fireflies, alderflies, dobsonflies, snakeflies, sawflies, caddisflies, butterflies or scorpionflies. Some true flies have become secondarily wingless, especially in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, or among those that are inquilines in social insect colonies.

Diptera is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species of mosquitos, gnats, midges and others, although under half of these (about 120,000 species) have been described. It is one of the major insect orders both in terms of ecological and human (medical and economic) importance. The Diptera, in particular the mosquitoes (Culicidae), are of great importance as disease transmitters, acting as vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, encephalitis and other infectious diseases.

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