DIPTERA

• Flies
• Only 1 pair of wings (on mesothorax). Hind wings are reduced to halteres.
• Mostly small insects.
• Importance as plant pests, but also bloodsucking flies, important as vectors of human and animal diseases (malaria, sleeping sickness).
• Mouthparts of sucking type. Often adapted to absorb liquids, sometimes piercing.
• Complete metamorphosis.
• Larvae are called maggots. Legless, wormlike larvae, often with a reduced head. Many larvae live in water. In plant feeding species the larvae often live within the plant tissues, leaf miners, gall insects, stem or root borers.
• Adult diptera feed on plant juices, like nectar. Some are blood feeding on animals. Many are predaceous on other insects.

Families

The order Diptera is divided into a number of families. Some families containing important agricultural pests are:

• Cecidomyiidae = Gall midges or Gall gnats
• Tephritidae (= Trypetidae) = Fruit flies
• Agromyzidae = Leafminer flies
• Diopsidae = Stalk-eyed flies
• Muscidae = Muscid flies
• Anthomyiidae = Anthomiid flies