Diptera Sentence Examples

In ordinary language the name is used for any species of Siphonaptera (otherwise known as Aphaniptera), which, though formerly regarded as a suborder of Diptera, are now considered to be a separate order of insects.

The relation of the Diptera (two-winged flies, or flies proper) to the other Orders is dealt with underHexapoda.

The chief characteristic of the Diptera is expressed in the name of the Order, since, with the exception of certain aberrant and apterous forms, flies possess but a single pair of membranous wings, which are attached to the meso-thorax.

The wings, which are not capable of being folded, are usually transparent, but occasionally pigmented and adorned with coloured spots, blotches or bands; the wing-membrane, though sometimes clothed with minute hairs, seldom bears scales; the wing-veins, which are of great importance in the classification of Diptera, are usually few in number and chiefly longitudinal, there being a marked paucity of cross-veins.

The antennae of Diptera, which are also extremely important in classification, are thread-like in the more primitive families, such as the Tipulidae (daddy-long-legs), where they consist of a considerable number of joints, all of which except the first two, and sometimes also the last two, are similar in shape; in the more specialized families, such as the Tabanidae (horse-flies), Syrphidae (hover-flies) or Muscidae (house-flies, blue-bottles and their allies), the number of antennal joints is greatly reduced by coalescence, so that the antennae appear to consist of only three joints.

Although in the case of the majority of Diptera the body is more or less clothed with hair, the hairy covering is usually so short that to the unaided eye the insects appear almost bare; some forms, however, such as the bee-flies (Bombylius) and certain robber-flies (Asilidae) are conspicuously hairy.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 species of Diptera are at present known, but these are only a fraction of those actually in existence.

The sexes in Diptera are usually alike, though in a number of families with short antennae the males are distinguished by the fact that their eyes meet together (or nearly so) on the forehead.

Metamorphosis in Diptera is complete; the larvae are utterly different from the perfect insects in appearance, and, although varying greatly in outward form, are usually footless grubs; those of the Muscidae are generally known as maggots.

Diptera are divided into some sixty families, the exact classification of which has not yet been finally settled.

Certain extremely aberrant Diptera, which, in consequence of the adoption of a parasitic mode of life, have undergone great structural modification, are further remarkable for their peculiar mode of reproduction, on account of which the families composing the group are often termed Pupipara.

In these forms the pregnant female, instead of laying eggs, as Diptera usually do, or even producing a number of minute living larvae, gives birth at one time but to a single larva, which is retained within the oviduct of the mother until adult, and assumes the pupal state immediately on extrusion.

The Pupipara are also termed Eproboscidea (although they actually possess a well-developed and functional proboscis), and by some dipterists the Eproboscidea are regarded as a suborder .and contrasted as such with the rest of the Diptera, which are styled the suborder Proboscidea.

With the exception of a few species from the Solenhofen lithographic Oolite, fossil Diptera belong to the Tertiary Period, during which the members of this order attained a high degree of development.

Diptera as an order are probably more widely distributed over the earth's surface than are the representatives of any similar division of the animal kingdom.

Eaton discovered on the desolate shores of Kerguelen's 'Island apterous and semi-apterous Diptera (Tipulidae and jEph_ydridae) of a degraded type adapted to the climatic peculiarities of the locality.

To a geographical distribution of the widest extent, Diptera add a range of habits of the most diversified nature; they are both animal and vegetable feeders, an enormous number of species acting, especially in the larval state, as scavengers in consuming putrescent or decomposing matter of both kinds.

That Diptera of the type of the common house-fly are often in large measure responsible for the spread of such diseases as cholera and enteric fever is undeniable, and as regards blood-sucking forms, in addition to those to which reference has already been made, it is sufficient to mention the vast army of pests constituted by the midges, sand-flies, horseflies, &c., from the attacks of which domestic animals suffer equally with man, in addition to being frequently infested with the larvae of the bot and warble flies (Gastrophilus, Oestrus and Hypoderma).

With many writers it is customary to treat the fleas as a suborder of Diptera, under the title Aphaniptera or Siphonaptera.

The order Diptera contains a host of serious pests.

Escherich (1901), after a new of these twenty-one divisions are so different from the others that research on the embryology of the muscid Diptera, claims that the they can scarcely be considered true segments.

It has been disputed whether any true cerci exist in the higher insects, but they are probably represented in the Diptera and in the scorpionflies (Mecaptera).

His classification was founded mainly on the nature of the wings, and five of his orders - the Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps, &c.), Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (two-winged flies), Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), and Hemiptera (bugs, cicads, &c.) - are recognized to-day with nearly the same limits as he laid down.

To the Lias also can be traced back the Neuroptera, the Trichoptera, the orthorrhaphous Diptera and, according to the determination of certain obscure fossils, also the Hymenoptera (ants).

The Lithographic stone of Kimmeridgian age, at Solenhofen in Bavaria, is especially rich in insect remains, cyclorrhaphous Diptera appearing here for the first time.

In Tertiary times the higher Diptera, besides Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, referable to existing families, become fairly abundant.

Fragmentary as the records are, they show that the Exopterygota preceded the Endopterygota in the evolution of the class, and that among the Endopterygota those orders in which the greatest difference exists between imago and larva - the Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera - were the latest to take their rise.

There seems no doubt that the suctorial mouth-organs of the Diptera have arisen quite independently from those of the Lepidoptera, for in the former order the sucker is formed from the second maxillae, in the latter from the first.

From the evidence of fossils it seems that the higher sub-order - Apocrita - can be traced back to the Lias, so that we believe the Hymenoptera to be more ancient than the Diptera, and far more ancient than the Lepidoptera.

In some way it is assured among the highest of the Hexapoda - the Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera - that the larva finds itself amid a rich food-supply.

In 1735 appeared the first edition of the Systema naturae of Linnaeus, in which the "Insecta" form a group equivalent to the Arthropoda of modern zoologists, and are divided into seven orders, whose names - Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, &c., founded on the nature of the wings - have become firmly established.

There are 8 families of Coleoptera, 6 of Orthoptera, 23 of Hymenoptera, 14 of Lepidoptera and 7 of Diptera.

K, sucking Diptera, belonging to various families, but now by common consent restricted to those known to naturalists as Culicidae, or gnats.

The tip of the proboscis is armed with a complicated series of chitinous teeth and rasps, by means of which the fly is enabled to pierce the skin of its victim; as usual in Diptera the organ is closed on the upper side by the labrum, or upper lip, and contains the hypopharynx or common outlet of the paired salivary glands, which are situated in the abdomen.

The proboscis of tsetse-flies is without the paired piercing stilets (mandibles and maxillae) possessed by other bloodsucking Diptera, such as the female horse-flies and mosquitoes.

Hymenoptera are probably less widely distributed than Aptera, Coleoptera or Diptera, but they are to be found in all except the most inhospitable regions of the globe.

The multiplication of orders is attended with practical difficulties, and the distinctions between the various groups of the Linnean Neuroptera are without doubt less obvious than those between the Coleoptera (beetles) and the Diptera (two-winged flies) for example.

The same explanation no doubt applies to the mimicry, both in Borneo and South Africa, of hairy bees of the family Xylocopidae by Asilid flies of the genus Hyperechia, and also to other cases of mimicry of Hymenoptera as well as of inedible beetles of the family Lycidae by Diptera.

Numerous other cases of mimicry between Diptera and Hymenoptera might be cited.

The same style of coloration is found in Coleoptera of the families Cetoniidae and Cantharidae; in Diptera of the families Asilidae, Bombylidae, Tabanidae and Tachinidae; in Hemiptera of the family Reduviidae and in Lepidoptera of the family Zygaenidae.

Towards this Lycoid centre have converged Coleoptera (beetles) of the sub-order Lamellicornia (Copridae), Phytophaga; Heteromera (Cantharidae) and Longicornia; Hemiptera of the families Pyrrhocoridae, Lygaeidae and Reduviidae; Lepidoptera of the families Arctiidae and Zygaenidae; Diptera of the family Asilidae; and lastly Hymenoptera of the families Braconidae, Pompilidae, Crabronidae and Eumenidae.

Among the Diptera, which includes a very wide range of genera and species, are some of a highly troublesome character, though on the whole, Mr Whymper did not find the flies and mosquitoes so.

In a large number of Diptera an incision in the posterior margin of the wing, near the base, marks off a small lobe, the posterior lobe or alula, while connected with this but situated on the thorax itself there is a pair of membranous scales, or squamae, which when present serve to conceal the halteres.

In bodily form Diptera present two main types, either, as in the case of the more primitive and generalized families, they are gnator midge-like in shape, with slender bodies and long, delicate legs, or else they exhibit a more or less distinct resemblance to the common house-fly, having compact and stoutly built bodies and legs of moderate length.

Diptera in general are not remarkable for brilliancy of coloration; as a rule they are dull and inconspicuous in hue, the prevailing bodytints being browns and greys; occasionally, however, more especially in species (Syrphidae) that mimic Hymenoptera, the body is conspicuously banded with yellow; a few are metallic, such as the species of Formosia, found in the islands of the East Indian Archipelago, which are among the most brilliant of all insects.

The Diptera Orthorrhapha include the more primitive and less specialized families such as the Tipulidae (daddy-long-legs), Culicidae (gnats or mosquitoes), Chironomidae (midges), Mycetophilidae (fungus-midges), Tabanidae (horse-flies), Asilidae (robber-flies), &c. The Diptera Cyclorrhapha on the other hand consist of the most highly specialized families, such as the Syrphidae (hover-flies), Oestridae (bot and warble flies), and Muscidae (sensu latiore - the house-fly and its allies, including tsetse-flies, flesh-flies, Tachininae, or flies the larvae of which are internal parasites of caterpillars, &c.).

It may confidently be asserted that, of insects which directly or indirectly affect the welfare of man, Diptera form the vast majority, and it is a moot point whether the good effected by many species in the rapid clearing away of animal and vegetable impurities, and in keeping other insect enemies in check, counterbalances the evil and annoyance wrought by a large section of the Order.

The part played by certain blood-sucking Diptera in the dissemination of disease is now well known (see Mosquito and Tsetse-Fly), and under the term myiasis medical literature includes a lengthy recital of instances of the presence of Dipterous larvae in various parts of the living human body, and the injuries caused thereby.

Since, however, although undoubtedly allied to the Diptera, they must have diverged from the ancestral stem at an early period, before the existing forms of Diptera became so extremely specialized, it seems better to regard the fleas as constituting an independent order (see FLEA).

They differ from the Diptera, however, in the general presence of palps to both pairs of maxillae, and in the absence of a hypopharynx, so it is possible that their relationship to the Diptera is less close than has been supposed.

The " carrier " of a Trypanosome of warmblooded vertebrates is, in all instances so far described, an insect, generally a member of the Diptera; in the case of parasites of cold-blooded vertebrates the same role is usually played by an ichthyobdellid leech (piscine forms), but possibly, now and again, by an Ixodes (amphibian or reptilian forms).