page_title: Fly
section_title: Relationships to other insects
hierarchical_section_title: Fly / Taxonomy and phylogeny / Relationships to other insects
caption_attribution_description: English: Habitus of Lutzomyia adiketis. Bar = 240 μm. Русский: Внешний вид Lutzomyia adiketis.
context_page_description: True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics. Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.
  Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking, or for lapping and sucking in the other groups. Their wing arrangement gives them great maneuverability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces. Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source. The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.
context_section_description: Dipterans are endopterygotes, insects that undergo radical metamorphosis. They belong to the Mecopterida, alongside the Mecoptera, Siphonaptera, Lepidoptera and Trichoptera. The possession of a single pair of wings distinguishes most true flies from other insects with "fly" in their names. However, some true flies such as Hippoboscidae (louse flies) have become secondarily wingless.
  The cladogram represents the current consensus view.
caption: Fossil nematoceran in Dominican amber. Sandfly, Lutzomyia adiketis (Psychodidae), Early Miocene, c. 20 million years ago
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