page_title: Halteres
hierarchical_section_title: Halteres
caption_attribution_description: Nephrotoma guestfalica, male. Location: The Netherlands - Julianadorp - Nieuwe wijken
context_page_description: Halteres are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two Orders of flying insects that provide information about body rotations during flight. Examples of insects with halteres are houseflies, mosquitoes, gnats, and craneflies.
  Halteres oscillate rapidly along with the wings and operate like vibrating structure gyroscopes: any rotation of the plane of oscillation causes a force on the vibrating halteres by the Coriolis effect. The insect detects this force with sensory organs called campaniform sensilla and chordotonal organs located at the base of the halteres and uses this information to interpret and correct its position in space. Halteres provide rapid feedback to the wing-steering muscles, as well as to the muscles responsible for stabilizing the head.
  Insects of the large order Diptera have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral hindwings, while males of the much smaller order Strepsiptera have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral forewings.
context_section_description: Halteres (/hælˈtɪəriːz/; singular halter or haltere) (from Ancient Greek: ἁλτῆρες, weights held in the hands to give an impetus in leaping) are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two Orders of flying insects that provide information about body rotations during flight. Examples of insects with halteres are houseflies, mosquitoes, gnats, and craneflies.
  Halteres oscillate rapidly along with the wings and operate like vibrating structure gyroscopes: any rotation of the plane of oscillation causes a force on the vibrating halteres by the Coriolis effect. The insect detects this force with sensory organs called campaniform sensilla and chordotonal organs located at the base of the halteres and uses this information to interpret and correct its position in space. Halteres provide rapid feedback to the wing-steering muscles, as well as to the muscles responsible for stabilizing the head.
  Insects of the large order Diptera (flies) have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral hindwings, while males of the much smaller order Strepsiptera (stylops) have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral forewings.
caption: A cranefly, whose club-shaped halteres can be seen immediately posterior to the attachment of the wings to the body.
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