|
|
|
 |
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|
Flies and mosquitos - Diptera
The dipterans or true flies include many common insects such as mosquitoes, midges, sand flies, blowflies and the House Fly, to name a few. Most of the insects we see flying around do so with four wings (two pairs), but dipterans (meaning 'two wings') use only one pair. The other pair of wings is reduced to club-like structures known as 'halteres' that they use for balance. There are many hundreds of species of flies in Sydney and without them life would certainly be different. Some are regarded as pests, but many beneficial species control populations of plants and animals, decompose waste material and provide links in a number of food chains. Research in Australia and overseas is investigating the possibility of using maggots (fly larvae) in forensic science. After a murder or death, flies are the first insects to arrive on the scene and, by identifying and determining the age of the maggots, forensic scientists are able to estimate the time of death. More than 7,000 dipteran species have been described in Australia but there are probably still three times as many yet to be discovered. There are more known fly species than fish, reptile, amphibian, bird and mammal species put together.
See also within this site: |
|
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
