Flies

DipteraDiptera – image index Flies Pollinators and Flies Australian Sheep Blowfly (Lucilia cuprina) Australian Drain Fly Balaana Beefly Bat Flies Bee Flies Bee Fly (Anthrax) Ligyra Australiphthiria Chrysomya saffranea Eristalinus punctulatus Musca Odontomyia (Soldier Flies) Robber Flies Sarcophaga aurifrons Soldier Fly Syrphids

Flies are one of those insects that everyone is familiar with, found in almost all terrestrial habitats in the world (apart from Antarctica). From the order Diptera (and including a number of suborders), they form one of the five most diverse orders of insects, with some 150,000 species that have been described across 150 families. In Australia, there is estimated to be some 30,000 flies, with only 6,400 having been described.¹

Flies on the whole, are the second largest group of pollinators, after the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and relatives). In certain habitats where it is a wetter and colder environment, flies are significantly more important as pollinators.^2,3

When you compared them with bees, flies require less food as they do not need to provide for their young. There are many flowers that bear low nectar and those that have evolved trap pollination that depend on flies. There are may fly species that are common visitors to flowers, including from the families Syrphidae (hoverflies), Bombyliidae (bee flies), and the Muscidae.

Australia has many fly species that are unique. Flies can be identified, in that they only have only one pair of functional wings. And most flies have mouthparts adapted for lapping or piercing and sucking.

An important group, flies have have ecological functions in the environment from nutrient recycling, predation, pollination, and their larvae are often parasitoids of other insects.

There are many interesting looking species of flies, of which some are considered a nuisance such as the bush fly (Musca vetustissima), mosquitoes, sandflies and blackflies.

A number of species of flies are responsible for the transmission of a wide variety of disease-causing micro-organisms in both humans and animals.

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Class: Insecta
• Superorder: Panorpida
• (unranked): Antliophora
• Order: Diptera
• Suborder:
  • Brachycera
  • Nematocera

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DipteraDiptera – image index Flies Pollinators and Flies Australian Sheep Blowfly (Lucilia cuprina) Australian Drain Fly Balaana Beefly Bat Flies Bee Flies Bee Fly (Anthrax) Ligyra Australiphthiria Chrysomya saffranea Eristalinus punctulatus Musca Odontomyia (Soldier Flies) Robber Flies Sarcophaga aurifrons Soldier Fly Syrphids

InsectsBees Beetles Blattodea Butterflies Coleoptera Cicada Crabronidae Diptera Dragonflies & Damselflies Formicidae Hemiptera Heteroptera (True Bugs) Mango Planthopper Moths Orthoptera Orthopteroid Processionary Caterpillar Stink Bugs, Shield Bugs and Allies Syrphidae Wasps Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) Witchetty Grub