Diptera: Two-winged flies
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published 20/11/2007
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SummaryInsects of the order Diptera are characterized by one pair of wings. The second pair is usually modified to form a pair of drumsticklike structures known as halteres. A typical life cycle consists of eggs, limbless larvae, pupae, and winged adults, but numerous variations exist. Mouthparts are of the sucking type. Females of many species, although free living, take blood or other tissue fluids from vertebrates, injecting salivary secretions that are not intrinsically toxic but are potent sensitizing agents for most humans. Larvae of some Diptera are human parasites. Other adult Diptera feed indiscriminately on feces and human foodstuffs. These habits make them by far the most important arthropod vectors of human disease.
Table of Contents
- Most of these insects are cosmopolitan in distribution, except tsetse flies, which are restricted to Africa, and tropical and subtropical sand flies.
- Carbon dioxide, body heat, and sweat gland secretions, especially apocrine, are attractants for mosquitoes; certain skin lipids are repellent.
- Treatment of mosquito bites consists of local application of antipruritic lotions or creams.
- Bites are immediately painful and result in raised, red, and pruritic lesions that persist from a few hours to a week or more.
- Blackfly bites are more common on the upper half of the body.
- Horseflies and deerflies are medium to large (10 to 25 mm body length) stocky flies whose large eyes often are brightly colored.
- The term myiasis for parasitism by fly larvae was introduced into the medical literature in 1840, although the condition has been observed since antiquity.
- Another form of migratory myiasis is caused by larvae of Gastrophilus, which normally are gastrointestinal or nasal parasites of horses.
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