Other Common Names
The common names of the members of order Diptera are written as two words: crane fly, robber fly, bee fly, moth fly, fruit fly, etc. The common names of non-dipterans that have "fly" in their name are written as one word: butterfly, stonefly, dragonfly, scorpionfly, sawfly, caddisfly, whitefly, etc.
Explanation of Names
Diptera Linnaeus 1758
'two-winged' (the name dates back to
Aristotle, who noted that typical insects have four wings
(1))
Numbers
~17,000 spp. in 2,222 genera of ~110 families in our area, the number of described species steadily growing
(2); >150,000 described extant species in ~160 families total
(3)(4)(5)
DRAFT: Families represented in our area
Classification adapted from
(5). Non-monophyletic groups in quotation marks; taxa not yet in the guide marked (*). BG family wish list and how to find members of the missing families
here.
Identification
Adult flies, except for wingless species, have two functional wings and two
halteres. Males of some mayflies and scale insects have only front wings. A few tiny parasitic wasps, e.g. Mymarommatidae, have their hind wings reduced, but these can be distinguished from flies as the wasps have only one vein in their front wings and flies always have two or more veins in their wings as long as their wings are membranous.
Treatment of our fauna down to genus level in
(6)(7)
For anatomy and terminology see
(8)
Keys to larvae (UK fauna) in
(9)
Keys to families of aquatic larvae
(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)Remarks
The classification adopted here uses several
paraphyletic groups
(16). A recent summary of higher taxonomy & phylogeny in
(5); major changes expected.
