Insects of the order Diptera are widespread in the tundra, in the desert, and in any other corner of the earth. Representatives of this family have been known to the world since the Jurassic period. Every person is probably familiar with annoying mosquitoes first hand.
Order Diptera: general characteristics
Diptera are invertebrate animals belonging to the class of insects. characteristic feature which is the presence of one pair of full wings and the presence of complete metamorphosis. Almost every person learns about this definition after reading the textbook “Biology”. Diptera are also an order that unites more than one hundred and fifty families and one hundred thousand species of insects. Midges, mosquitoes, flies, and horse flies are especially famous.
Scientists do not classify dipterans as social animals, but there are exceptional cases when representatives of this order form flocks. Usually these are situations caused by the presence of an attractive aroma of food, a convenient location of the territory for mating or rest.
But the majority of dipterous insects prefer solitary existence. Each of them goes through a certain cycle, thanks to which they transform into a full-fledged individual of the order Diptera. Representatives of this order are initially at the egg stage, then pass into the larva, followed by the pupa and only then the imago.
At the larval stage, the body of the individual is like a worm without legs. The only protrusion on their body are non-segmented structures on the abdomen. They are also characterized by the presence of an oral apparatus. An adult imago is capable of living only in air space. Larvae are not picky in this regard. They are comfortable in soil, in water, and in the bodies of plants and animals. Adults belonging to the order Diptera feed on nectar and pollen of plants. They are predatory and blood-sucking.
Order Diptera: reproduction
The larvae and adult representatives included in this order have striking differences in the anatomical and physiological structure. The period of acute reproduction for a number of dipteran insects is not easy. Often, males ready to breed create a kind of swarm, the noise of which can attract many females.
The majority of dipterans are oviparous. But in nature there are flies that are characterized by ovoviviparity. In this case, it lays an egg in which the finally formed dipteran larvae are located. After hatching, they immediately begin life processes such as feeding.
There are also flies capable of viviparity. IN in this case There are two possible outcomes of events. In the first, an older larva is born, which requires some time to feed; in the second, the larva is born in full readiness for pupation.
Also, reproduction of dipterans can occur at the larval stage. This phenomenon is called pedogenesis. It is based on the maturation of approximately sixty daughter larvae in the pedogenetic body. Daughter larvae emerge through breaks in the maternal integument. Reproduction in favorable conditions allows insects belonging to the order Diptera to produce up to 10 new generations per year.
External signs of adult dipteran insects
In size, an adult dipteran insect - imago - reaches from two to five centimeters in length. Bilateral symmetry is a characteristic feature that distinguishes the order Diptera from others. The limbs on the body are located on the abdomen in three pairs. The head of dipterous insects is distinguished by a rounded shape with characteristic huge ones located on both sides.
The majority of such representatives have a sucking mouthparts. In addition to it, there is sucking-licking and piercing-sucking. Some gadflies have underdeveloped mouthparts. The front membranous wings are attached to the mesothorax. They are better developed than the hind ones and are the main means of flight. A pair of rear wings in the process of evolution took the form of club-shaped halteres and turned into an organ of balance. Legs in three pairs extend from the chest of the insect, which is part of the order Diptera. The limbs are complemented by suckers and claws. It is their presence that allows insects to move along vertical planes.
Internal structure
Hemolymph acts as the fluid medium of the body of representatives of the order Diptera. At its core, this substance is similar to blood in the organisms of higher animals. The order Diptera is characterized by an open circulatory system. That is, in all representatives the hemolymph comes into contact with internal organs. On back wall In the thoracic cavity, each representative included in the order Diptera has a thickened and compacted dorsal vessel. In fact, it is he who performs cardiac functions. The trachea is responsible for breathing in the body of insects. Gas exchange processes take place in the abdominal cavity. Here is huge amount trachea in proximity to the aorta. Diptera are also characterized by the presence of a brain.
Role in nature
One hundred thousand species of Diptera are grouped into several groups:
- mosquitoes and biting midges;
- thicklegs and fungus gnats;
- butterflies;
- centipedes;
- lions;
- stem beetles;
- horseflies;
- balls;
- humpbacks;
- hoverflies;
- dung and house flies;
- gadflies and tahini.
House flies
House flies belong to the family of true flies. They are the owners of a synanthropic organism, which is currently almost impossible to find in nature. An individual of this species is awake mainly during the day. The structure of the fly is distinguished by large faceted dark red eyes. It usually does not exceed eight millimeters in length. Its body color is gray with characteristic black longitudinal stripes on its chest. The abdomen in the lower part has a yellowish color.
The structure of the female fly is somewhat different from that of the male fly. First of all, they have an increased distance between their eyes. Secondly, females are larger in size. House flies have a licking-sucking mouthparts. In this regard, they are not capable of biting the skin and sucking blood. They only take liquids for food. In the case of consuming solid food, they first have to carry out the procedure of dissolving it in their own saliva.
The lifespan of a housefly depends on temperature regime its habitat. In an optimal environment, with temperatures hovering around twenty-four degrees Celsius, it can live up to twenty days. According to their method of reproduction, houseflies are oviparous. At one time, one individual is capable of laying up to one hundred and twenty eggs. Their transformation cycle is complete.
Mosquitoes
Otherwise, they are also called blood-sucking mosquitoes. They belong to the group of long mustaches. They feed mostly on plant sap and nectar. For many, the mouthparts are also designed to pierce the skin and suck out blood. Each of these types of food is a very important source of energy for of this insect.
The body of mosquitoes is thin, up to fourteen centimeters long. They are also characterized by long limbs and narrow, almost transparent wings. Their body color is gray, yellowish or brown. There is a species of mosquito with a green or black abdomen.
The elongated abdomen is divided into ten segments. A peculiarity of the structure of mosquitoes is that the chest is slightly wider than the abdomen. They have a pair of claws at the tips of their paws. Mosquitoes have scaly wings and segmented antennae. The type of mouthparts is piercing-sucking.
A distinctive feature of the female is a long proboscis with piercing bristles. Each insect of this species has a tube-shaped lower lip. It is behind this that the oral apparatus is hidden. Also on this lip there are several jaws that allow the mosquito to cut a hole in the skin. After eruption, it plunges its proboscis into the resulting hole, through which it sucks blood. In their development, all mosquitoes go through a complete life cycle from egg to adult.
Horseflies
The Diptera family has its own important place are occupied by horse flies. Biologists classify them as the short-whiskered suborder. In my own way appearance they are like flies, only larger size. They have a fleshy trunk with sharp and hard piercing stilettos. The antennae of horseflies stick out forward and consist of four segments. Their eyes are huge and colorful. The oral apparatus includes mandibles, jaws, upper lip and subpharynx, and a lower lip with sweeping lobes.
Like most dipterans, horseflies are oviparous. At the egg stage, they are long in shape and grey, black or brown in color. Turning into larvae, they lighten in color and become spindle-shaped. Horsefly pupae are very similar to butterfly pupae. The main distribution environment is livestock grazing areas.
The female imago of this insect usually feeds on the blood of warm-blooded animals. Males prefer plant nectar. At one time, the female is capable of laying up to one thousand eggs. Horseflies spend the main part of their life in the air, flying over different terrain and objects.
Gadflies
An important characteristic feature of adult individuals is the lack of nutritional requirements. The fact is that they, being a larva, accumulate required quantity nutrients, the consumption of which occurs at the imago stage. Usually the adult lives from three to twenty days. During its existence, it loses up to a third of its weight.
Gadflies mate every year in the same places. After the male fertilizes the female, she immediately goes in search of an animal suitable for laying eggs. The most preferable areas for them are the soft abdominal wall, groin and front part of the animal's thigh. There are gastric, subcutaneous and cavitary gadflies. The most vulnerable are horses, goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle.
Butterflies
Butterflies, or two-winged butterflies, belong to the suborder long-whiskered. In fact, these are small mosquitoes ranging in size from one to four millimeters. In appearance, they are very reminiscent of miniature and neat butterflies. There are almost three thousand species in total. Butterflies are found in all corners of the globe. Their main diversity is noticed in the CIS countries. Butterfly larvae prefer to live in rotting plant remains. Some of them prefer an aquatic environment.
The head of an adult butterfly is decorated with antennae and two eyes. Its small wings are approximately two millimeters in length. The entire body, including the wings, has a light hairy covering. Butterflies are characterized by a steel or silver color. They use their wings extremely rarely. The main method of movement is movement with the help of gusts of wind.
In total, an adult of this dipteran insect lives for two or three weeks. During her life, she usually does not eat at all. To attract a male for mating, butterflies are able to secrete a special attractive secret. It is worth noting that the bolad spider can also secrete a similar secret. This property allows him to attract male butterflies, who very often get stuck in his web.
A butterfly can lay one hundred eggs at once. And after just two days, each egg hatches into a larva. Butterfly larvae have a very important positive feature- they are able to eat mucous formations in the inside of sewer pipes. This way they clean them. Adult butterfly moths enter apartments through cracks in the floor, holes in drains, clogged drains and risers. Apartments with high humidity the most comfortable for them.
Oddly enough, the order of Diptera remains the most numerous and very tenacious species of insects. To date, scientists have described more than 162,000 species, including more than 3,000 types of fossils. The order Diptera includes flies (house flies and dung flies), hoverflies, mosquitoes (malarial and common), bullflies, gadflies, fruit flies, gall midges, mosquitoes, in general, all those who have only one pair of wings. Some interesting facts about dipteran insects.
Origin of the name
Most people don't even know what flies, mosquitoes, horse flies, etc. have. only one pair of wings - the front one. The hind wings were deformed into halteres - organs of balance during flight.
By the way, the wings of representatives of this order do not contain a single muscle and are thin mica flaps. The chest muscles are used to control the wings. Moreover, the wing responds to the most insignificant muscle impulse with 5-10 strokes. So some insects can beat their wings 300-500 times per second, while hoverflies can beat their wings about 1,500 times. From such intense vibrations of air, a murmuring sound arises, which gives these insects their name.
Danger or benefit
It's no secret that some insects are carriers of very dangerous diseases. Such insects are especially common in equatorial and tropical forests where the humidity is very high. One of the representatives of the carriers of African infection is the malaria mosquito. Currently, malaria mosquitoes have spread throughout to the globe, except Antarctica and Far Siberia, however, malaria mosquitoes cause more harm, of course, in African countries.
Another carrier of diseases such as sleeping sickness and Chagall disease are Tsetse flies. They live mainly in wooded savannas, swampy areas: the countries of Tropical Africa and Latin America. What is noteworthy is that infections carried by the Tsetse fly have been and are the “scourge” of the 21st century.
But among representatives of dipterans there are also useful specimens. For example, tahina flies that live in gardens and vegetable gardens. There is no need to drive them away or fight them - their larvae are very harmful to Colorado potato beetles, cabbage butterflies and other garden pests. Tahini flies are also called hedge flies because of the many hard bristles that cover their bodies along the entire length.
Cave Dwellers
In Australia and New Zealand you can find unusual mosquitoes. They are called "mushrooms". These mosquitoes are completely harmless. Adults feed on underground fungi that grow in dark, damp caves.
A distinctive feature of fungus gnats is that their larvae can... produce energy like fireflies!
The fact is that in the bodies of fungus gnat larvae there are two chemicals– luciferase and luciferin. It is thanks to them that the larva glows. Moreover, the hungrier she is, the stronger the glow.
All visitors to New Zealand have unique opportunity See with your own eyes billions of fungus gnat larvae. It is in New Zealand, in the Waitomo Caves, that they hang their fishing nets and illuminate them with their bodies. It turns out to be a kind of starry sky.
The distant ancestors of modern mosquitoes appeared in the Jurassic period, approximately 170 million years ago. So they managed to drink blood from the dinosaurs. But let's return from the past to the present and present some interesting facts about mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes are relatives of flies and belong to the order Diptera, which means dipterous in Latin. WITH Spanish the word "Mosquito" translates as "little fly".
In Rus', the word mosquito most likely came from the behavior of mosquitoes, that is, a derivative of “a swarming, buzzing insect huddled together.”
There are approximately 3,000 species of mosquitoes on the planet, and they are found from the arctic tundra to the humid tropical forests. They enter the active phase at temperatures above 12.7°C, which is why they prefer to live in warmer latitudes.
The male mosquito feeds on nectar and drinks water, just like butterflies. But females bite to suck blood. They need plasma to bear offspring. And now we know which mosquitoes drink blood and why it is necessary.
During the mating season, males form a swarm and circle in front of the females. This happens after sunset. Females, when approaching a swarm, choose medium-sized males, since large ones are less able to stay in the air.
During this period, a whole invasion of mosquitoes is observed in forests, swamps, and even in cities. But males prefer young, more mature females.
This dipteran has a stinger called a mosquito proboscis. But the insect makes an annoying squeak with its wings.
In addition, when meeting a representative of the opposite sex, mosquitoes synchronize the flapping of their wings and squeak, as they say, in unison.
Man fights mosquitoes as best he can, inventing new ways. But mosquitoes also have natural problems. Among birds there are many species that happily eat this small creature.
But when there is wind, mosquitoes do not bite, because due to their low weight they are simply blown away and cannot land on the body.
Like most dipteran insects, the mosquito's life cycle consists of 4 stages: egg-larva-pupa-imago. It is noteworthy that mosquitoes grow from egg to adult in 4 days.
Mosquitoes, so to speak, are patriots of their historical homeland. Having hatched from an egg, during their entire life they do not move more than 1 km from their place of birth.
But at the same time. If they are hungry, they can travel up to 65 km in search of food, and can smell food from a distance of 50 m.
These are annoying, but amazing insects They have infrared vision, so they can navigate perfectly in the dark.
And another remarkable fact is that at midnight, as experts have noted, the activity of “little vampires” increases 500 times.
By the way, about the most poisonous insects planets on our website there is an interesting article.
They are so small that when it starts to rain, they can fly freely between the drops for five minutes.
In addition, the low weight allows you to walk freely on the web without attracting the spider’s attention. Due to their low weight, they can still walk on water.
We already know that only females bite, and they live much longer than males. So how long does a mosquito live?
The average lifespan of a mosquito is 14 days, but females, under proper conditions and nutrition, live up to 45 days. As you can see, the lifespan of a mosquito is short, but when it is in a house or apartment, it causes enough trouble.
There are many reasons for the death of mosquitoes, but the main ones are cold, hunger, oversaturation, as well as death from the insectivorous inhabitants of our planet.
Zoologists put forward many hypotheses and theories as to why mosquitoes bite some people and not others.
The chemistry of our body is, of course, unique, but for mosquitoes the main thing is the smell and the amount secreted by the human body carbon dioxide and sweat.
Blood type also plays an important role. So what blood type do mosquitoes like? Scientists have noticed that a person with group I is attacked by mosquitoes twice as often as those with group II.
Here's another interesting thing about mosquitoes. Females more often bite representatives of the fair sex. And among women they prefer to drink blood from blondes. So brunettes, brown-haired women and redheads can feel relatively safe.
Killer mosquitoes
Mosquito bites, even if they do not carry dangerous viruses, cause severe itching and allergies. In Russia, the number of people who go to hospitals after mosquito bites increases every year.
But allergies and itching are not the worst thing, and in tropical latitudes mosquitoes kill people by infecting them with fatal diseases through their bites.
It is difficult to imagine who agreed to such an experiment, but Canadian scientists have found that about 9 thousand individuals bite a naked person in the tundra in one hour.
I wonder what painkillers were offered for itching to the person who agreed to such an experiment.
On average, adults do not grow more than 14 mm, and the wingspan ranges from 5 to 30 mm.
In the Canadian town of Komarno there is the largest monument to this insect, with a wingspan of 5 m.
No matter how hard humanity fights these biting insects, they cannot be completely destroyed. In fact, this will lead to an irreparable environmental disaster.
But in Singapore they managed to get rid of them completely. In this country, you can get a fine even if water remains in a pot when watering flowers, an ideal environment for mosquitoes.
Historians and geneticists for a long time tried to find dinosaur blood. And then one day a biochemist discovered traces of blood in the body of a mosquito that had lain in shale rocks for more than 40 million years.
This specimen allowed us to trace the evolution of mosquitoes, and confirmed that these insects have been drinking blood for tens of millions of years.
Finally, let’s find out what a mosquito looks like under a microscope. A mosquito in an enlarged form is a bit of an unusual sight and looks terrifying.
The piercing-sucking apparatus, as seen in the photo, has a complex structure. It was by examining this insect with a microscope that scientists found that when it bites, the mosquito inserts six needles into the victim’s body at once.
Throughout history, humanity has been trying to fight mosquitoes, coming up with new ways to protect against these annoying insects. IN modern world considered the most effective electronic repeller mosquitoes, and biologists are already changing their genetics so that these insects produce non-viable offspring.
Common house flies are notoriously annoying visitors to our kitchens. This is just one representative order Diptera, numbering more than 90,000 species worldwide. These include mosquitoes, midges, gall midges, centipedes, horseflies, gadflies, hoverflies, fruit flies, carrion flies and dung flies. The main characteristic of these insects is the presence of only one pair of wings, in contrast to the two pairs found in other insects. The hind pair of wings are transformed into thin club-shaped halteres, which help the insect maintain balance in flight.
Diptera– the greatest air conquerors among representatives of the insect world. Hoverflies can not only soar in the air, but also fly to the side and back. The wings of flies and related insects are thin flaps devoid of muscles. Flies wave them, changing the position of the chest - the place to which the wings are attached. In this case, the muscles inside the chest are used for the swings. The wings are attached to the body with elastic hinges, which allow them to fly up and down sharply. The wing responds to each nerve impulse with several beats, so many insects can make up to 300 beats per second, and some loaches and hoverflies beat their wings more than 1000 times per second! This causes a humming or gurgling sound.
Many flies During the larval stage, they feed on food that is very different from what they prefer as adults. Hoverflies are experts in floral diets. They especially love the shallow flowers of umbellifers. But their larvae eat aphids and other sucking insects, dung, or live as “guests” in ant nests, feeding on garbage. Midges, mosquitoes, mosquitoes and horseflies feed on our blood. These very annoying creatures are carriers of such dangerous diseases, like malaria or yellow fever, especially in wet and swampy areas where they breed. They lay their eggs on the surface of water bodies. Clutches of tiny, waxy eggs are held together and float on the surface of a body of water like miniature rafts. Soon, comma-shaped larvae emerge and swim around, wriggling, and feeding on tiny animals and plants. There are five species of tsetse flies (Glossina) found in Africa. They live by feeding on the blood of people and ungulates, while spreading microscopic protozoa - trypanosomes. Protozoa, multiplying in human blood, cause a fatal disease called sleeping sickness.
The piercing-sucking mouthparts of large horseflies, which bite people and animals such as cows and horses, cause them severe pain. Wounds itch, bleed and become inflamed, but horseflies rarely spread disease. Their larvae also bite painfully, and they feed on the juices of soft-bodied animals - worms, beetle larvae and others.
Some Diptera species, such as gadflies, lay their eggs on the skin of large animals and people. The larvae burrow through the skin and eat the flesh, causing serious damage. The non-pharyngeal botfly lays eggs in the nostrils of sheep. The larvae live and feed in the nasal sinuses of their host, sometimes making passages into his eyes and brain.
A housefly buzzing around your kitchen has probably recently fed on food scraps or animal excrement. She releases saliva onto the food, which partially digests and liquefies it, and then sucks up the resulting “broth.” Microbes remain on the flies' legs and mouthparts. By sitting on food, flies carry pathogens that cause food poisoning and diarrhea.
Dung flies roll animal excrement into balls and lay eggs in them so that the hatching larvae have enough food.
Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, bite people and suck their blood. But only females do this. They need nutrients for egg maturation. Male mosquitoes and midges are completely harmless and feed on flower nectar.
Different types dipterans drink the blood of animals, especially
They are voracious, hardy and ubiquitous - these are not all the interesting facts about insects. Want to know more? A selection of 15 reliable information from the life of representatives of the largest class of animals on Earth will help you with this.
- Mosquitoes feed on plant sap and nectar. But some of them suck blood not out of hunger, but to obtain proteins necessary for bearing offspring. Thus, only females are bloodsuckers, and males are absolute vegetarians.
- Despite the fact that the female mosquito is forced to consume blood, she chooses the “dish” meticulously. Females are bitten by females more often than males, and blondes are preferred to brunettes. Gourmets identify victims by smell: they like fat people, athletes, pregnant women, owners of the second and third blood groups.
- One of the reasons for the prevalence of mosquitoes in environment– greater viability of their eggs. Adverse conditions the offspring of insects don't care. Mosquito eggs can lie in cold, dry soil for up to 3 years, and then come to life when the weather warms and the soil becomes moist.
- The largest representative among Lepidoptera is Agrippa (Tizania). The butterfly, whose wingspan is 30 cm, belongs to the moth family and lives in Latin America. The second record holder in the “largest” category is Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing.
- The smallest butterfly, Acetosea, has a wingspan of only 2 mm.. You can see these nocturnal babies in the UK. The reticuloses that live on the Canary Islands are just a little short of the title of “smallest butterflies.”
- Live to the fullest - this seems to be the life motto of ephemeris or mayfly butterflies. In one day, these insects manage to be born, leave offspring and die. Such butterflies do not need to look for food, since their digestive organs are filled with air.
- The most poisonous spider, according to the compilers of the popular collection of the Guinness Book of Records, is the “Brazilian wanderer”. The insect received its nickname for its excessive activity.
- There are cannibals among spiders. Bright to that confirmation - the black widow, which lives in Eurasia, Australia and Oceania. After mating, the female of this species devours the smaller male, as she spends a lot of energy during the mating season.
- The largest spider on Earth is considered to be the Goliath tarantula (Teraphosa blond). The insect lives in the tropics of Latin America, eating small snakes, mice, frogs and lizards. The size of the body with straightened legs is 25–28 cm.
- Ants are one of the oldest insects on the planet.. Their age is 100–130 million years. It is also interesting that having survived to this day, they have practically not changed in appearance. The reason for this adaptability, according to scientists, lies in the social way of life.
- Some of the ants not only hunt, but also engage in cattle breeding. Herder ants “graze” scale insects, leafhoppers, aphids, and keep homoptera in “stalls.” The reward for their labors is the sweet excrement of “cattle” that goes into food.
- The main occupation of Amazon ants is wars, during which they capture the pupae of strangers. The captives are then used as slaves. The militants themselves are not able to feed themselves, since they cannot organize their daily life.
- Not only spiders are poisonous, but also caterpillars. The most dangerous larva butterflies - Lonomy, living in American tropical forests. She has a calm disposition and inconspicuous coloring, but the spines on the caterpillar’s body contain a strong toxin that acts as an anticoagulant.
- A stunning example of survivability - a cockroach. With his head severed, he can live for weeks. To respond to touch and move, the insect does not need a brain. Instead, the basic reflex functions are performed by clusters of nervous tissue in the body.
- The most voracious insect in the world - desert locusts. This pest, which lives in Asia and Africa, eats as much as it weighs every day. A flock of 50 million individuals per day destroys food that would be enough for 1 thousand people for six months.
