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True flies belong to the Order
Diptera, and contains an immense number of insects, nearly 100,000
known species. The hind wings are reduced to minute pin-shaped bodies
known as balancers or halteres, which act as gyroscopes and help to maintain
the fly's balance in flight. The single pair of wings give the Order
it's name: "two winged". A few species have no wings at
all, examples are; sheep ked, forest fly and deer fly.
Although a few hover flies are
able to crush pollen grains, flies feed almost exclusively on liquids....remember
the movie, with Jeff Goldblum vomiting over everything, well basically that
is what flies do..! lovely eh!, anyway, as I was saying, they feed mainly
on nectar, but many other liquids too. Many species like mosquitoes,
midges, horseflies etc., feed on blood. Houseflies and Blowflies rely entirely
on mopping up surface liquids with a pair of spongy pads at the tip of their
mouth parts, though they can deal with soluble solids by vomiting on them.
Disease is spread by flies regurgitating over our food after they have visited
dung heaps or carrion. Some flies do not feed at all once they become
adults.
Below you will see a picture of the
House Fly showing it's breeding cycle which, referring to Cockroaches
page, is
a complete metamorphism;
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