Life History & Ecology
The order Diptera includes all true flies. These insects are distinctive because their hind wings are reduced to small, club-shaped structures called halteres – only the membranous front wings serve as aerodynamic surfaces. … All Dipteran larvae are legless.
How do you identify a Diptera?
Insects in the order Diptera have only one pair of wings (2 wings total). Their antennae are generally shorter than their head. Insects in the order Neuroptera have long, thin, cylindrical bodies. Their two pairs of wings are generally the same size.
What type of mouthparts do Diptera have?
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.
What kind of legs do Diptera have?
About the structure and function, the legs of Diptera are ambulatory or cursorial, with specializations, in some groups, which may involve a single pair, usually the prothoracic.
What are the economic importance of Diptera?
Economic Importance
First, and most important, is the role of all Diptera in food chains in nature. For example, larval Chironomidae occur in large numbers and provide a major prey base for many other invertebrates as well as for vertebrates such as fish, birds, bats, and amphibians.
What are the characteristics of the order Diptera to which fruit flies mosquitoes and common house flies all belong?
Common characteristics of the order include:
A large and moveable head. Compound eyes that are often very large. Sucking, piercing and sucking or sponge-like mouthparts (all adapted for a liquid diet) The mesothorax (middle segment of the thorax or mid-body) is enlarged, with the prothorax and metathorax small.
What are the characteristics of Odonata?
Odonata, insect order comprising the dragonflies (suborder Anisoptera) and the damselflies (suborder Zygoptera). The adults are easily recognized by their two pairs of narrow, transparent wings, sloping thorax, and long, usually slender body; the abdomen is almost always longer than any of the wings.
What is the common name for Diptera?
Flies, gnats, maggots, midges, mosquitoes, keds, bots, etc. are all common names for members of the order Diptera. This diversity of names documents the importance of the group to man and reflects the range of organisms in the order. The order is one of the four largest groups of living organisms.
Where are Diptera found?
Diptera are abundant throughout the world: in the tropics, in 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).
What type of wings does Diptera have?
All Diptera are equipped with only one pair of functional wings, which are on the mesothorax (front). The wings on the metathorax are transformed into the halteres or rocker arms. From this characteristic comes the name of the order, from the Greek dipteros, which means “two wings”.
Why are Diptera so diverse?
Diptera are major contributors to the maintenance of plant diversity through their participation in pollination systems and networks. Diptera are rich in species with specific microhabitat or breeding-site requirements, conferring a high potential for habitat-quality assessment and conservation planning.
Do Diptera have mandibles?
Mandibles. The mandibles are paired and symmetrical appendages stylet-shaped, present only among lower Diptera. In the Nematocerca, they occurs sometimes in part of Culicomorpha and in Blephariceridae, Tanyderidae, and Psychodidae families. In Orthorrhapha they occurs only in few families of Tabanoidea.
Do Diptera have membranous wings?
Diptera is a large insect order containing about 90,000 described species. They are generally characterized by the single pair of membranous wings and the halteres, which are homologous to the hind wings in other groups of winged insects.
What do Diptera larvae eat?
The majority of fly larvae feed on decaying matter, eating the microbes (such as bacteria and yeasts) found in composting materials; these can include rotting plants, fungi, animal carcasses and dung. Other larvae are more particular about what they eat and how they go about doing it.
How do Diptera reproduce?
Females lay their eggs on or near the right kind of food for the larvae. Fruit fly females use their long needle-like ovipositor, or egg-laying tube, to pierce the skin of fruit and lay their eggs inside. Parasitic species lay their eggs in, on, or near their hosts.
Why are Dipterans considered as an important aspect in the study of veterinary entomology?
Order Diptera of class insecta is of immense importance for the public and animal health and hygiene. Many dipteran flies are potential vectors of dreadful diseases. Therefore, it is required to have a simple characterization method and identification key for the field workers and entomologists.
Where are Hymenoptera found?
Except in the polar regions, they are abundant in most habitats, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. Collectively, the Hymenoptera are most important to humans as pollinators of wild and cultivated flowering plants, as parasites of destructive insects, and as makers of honey.
What does Diptera mean in English?
diptera in British English
(ˈdɪptərə) plural noun. a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouthparts. The group includes flies, mosquitoes, craneflies, and midges.
Do Diptera have a pupal stage?
Diptera go through a complete metamorphosis, meaning that they have four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Larvae hatch from eggs with prolegs, or ‘false legs. ‘ They molt several times and develop into resting pupa, which then emerge as crumpled, soft-bodied adults.
Is a mosquito a Diptera?
Mosquitoes belong to the insect order Diptera, suborder Nematocera. Within this suborder the family Culicidae includes mosquitoes in some 110 genera and subgenera and about 3600 species with the most important genera Anopheles, Culex, Aedes and Mansonia.
What is the function of Haltere?
Function. Halteres help balancing and improve flight. They help flies to perform their fast aerobatics. In addition to providing rapid feedback to the muscles steering the wings, they also help stabilise the head during flight.
What type of antennae is Odonata?
They have three ocelli and short antennae. The mouthparts are on the underside of the head and include simple chewing mandibles in the adult.
What is the function of the cerci?
On the end of the abdomen, there are a pair of cerci, projections which are sensory organs. Cerci function in a similar manner to antennae, sensing vibrations through air or ground.
Are Odonata complete or incomplete metamorphosis?
Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) are insects with an incomplete metamorphosis (hemimetabolous). The aquatic larva or nymph hatches from an egg, and develops through eight to seventeen instars before leaving the water and emerging as the winged adult or imago.
What are characteristics of siphonaptera?
Etymology: Siphonaptera comes from the Greek words siphon, which means a tube, and aptera, which means without wings. This refers to two characteristics: the absence of wings, and the presence of a tube-like mouthparts that the insects use to pierce the skin of host animals and drink their blood.
Why is fly called fly?
“Fly,” derived from the Old English “flowan” (to flow), has acquired many meanings over the centuries, e.g., a winged insect, a baseball hit high into the air, the space above a theater stage and a late-1960s word for “cool.”
How many Diptera families are there?
About 150,000 species of living Diptera have been described in approximately 10,000 genera and 150 families; this is about 14% of the world’s known insect fauna.
Are Diptera herbivores?
They are commonly found in the soil, in plant or animal tissues, and in carrion or dung — almost always where there is little danger of desiccation. Some species are herbivores, but most feed on dead organic matter or parasitize other animals, especially vertebrates, molluscs, and other arthropods.
What is the feeding developmental stage in Diptera?
Nutrition involves balance between feeding 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.
What is the life cycle of Hymenoptera?
Hymenoptera are Holometabolous, their life cycle consists of four phases: egg, multiple instars, pupa, and adult. “Complete metamorphosis” is the common term for this life cycle. Insect orders with this life cycle are grouped under the term Endopterygota because immatures never have visible wing buds.
Why Diptera are called true fly?
Flies are easily distinguished from other insects because they have only one pair of wings: the front wings. … The second pair of wings is reduced to small, knob-like structures called halteres, which they use for balance in flight.
What do trichoptera feed on?
Free-living caddisfly larvae. (order Trichoptera, family Rhyacophilidae) Feeding: Predators feeding on various insect larvae and other small invertebrates.
What characteristics are common in housefly and mosquito?
- A. compound and simple eyes.
- B. one pair of wings and halteres.
- C. three pairs of legs and one pair of antennae.
- D. two pairs of legs and two compound eyes.
- Answer. C.
Are Diptera Detritivores?
Detritivores. Many Diptera are detritivores. Typical are Dryomyza anilis and, notably, Musca domestica.
Where do Diptera lay eggs?
Blow flies and houseflies push their eggs between the membranes of meat or into any convenient cavity in decaying organic material.
Are Coleoptera herbivores?
As a group, they feed on a wide variety of diets, inhabit all terrestrial and fresh-water environments, and exhibit a number of different life styles. Many species are herbivores — variously adapted to feed on the roots, stems, leaves, or reproductive structures of their host plants.
Are Drosophila Diptera?
Drosophila | |
---|---|
Order: | Diptera |
Family: | Drosophilidae |
Subfamily: | Drosophilinae |
Genus: | Drosophila Fallén, 1823 |
Do Diptera have chewing mouth parts?
IN the Diptera fully mandibulate mouthparts adapted to penetrate the skin and ingest the body fluids of the host have been recognized in only seven families, the Culicidae (mosquitoes), Simuliidae (black flies), Ceratopogonidae (biting midges), Psychodidae (sandflies), Blepharoceridae, Tabanidae (including horseflies) …
What is sucking mouthparts in?
Piercing and Sucking:
This type of mouth parts are adapted for piercing the tissues of animals and plants to suck blood and plant juice, and found in dipteran insects like mosquitoes and hemipteran insects like bugs, aphids, etc.
Which anatomical feature can be used to most easily distinguish a Nematoceran from a Brachyceran fly?
The Nematocera are identified by their elongated bodies and many-segmented, often feathery antennae as represented by mosquitoes and crane flies. The Brachycera have rounder bodies and much shorter antennae.
In which insect right mandible is absent?
Right mandible is absent. Stylets are useful to lacerate the plant tissue and the oozing sap is sucked up by the mouth cone. Both maxillary palpi and labial palpi are present. Mandibulosuctorial type : e.g. grub of antlion Mandibles are elongate sickle shaped and grooved on the inner surface.
Who initiated the first regular work on Indian insects?
1767-1779: “J.G. Koenig” initiated the first regular scientific work on Indian insects and supplied the insect specimens to systematists like Linnaeus, Fabricius, Cramer, and Dury.