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Episode 233 – Flies and Mosquitos

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Of all the highly successful and capable flying insects in the world, few are as successful or capable as those in the order Diptera. This episode, we explore the unique features and dynamic evolutionary history of Flies and Mosquitoes.

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Insects of the order Diptera are commonly called flies. This group includes around 150,000 living species that inhabit nearly every terrestrial habitat on Earth. Many of these species are called “flies” (houseflies, crane flies, sand flies, etc.), though others are called midges, gnats, or mosquitoes.

Broadly speaking, dipterans come in two general forms: stout and round like house flies; and slender and spindly like mosquitoes.
Left: A fly of the family Anthomyiidae. Image by Martin Cooper, CC BY 2.0
Right: Yellow fever mosquito. Image by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2

Fly diets vary widely, but their mouthparts generally fall into two categories: sponge-like shapes for lapping and soaking up fluids; and long, slender forms for piercing and sucking. Depending on the species, fly food can include plant matter, live prey, carrion, and – in many famous cases – blood.

All flies start off their lives as larvae, often called maggots, before transitioning into flying adults. This diagram shows the life cycle of a mosquito. Image by Chiswick Chap, CC BY-SA 4.0
The face of a black horse fly, showing off characteristic eyes and mouthparts. Image by USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, CC0

As their name implies, flies fly. Whereas most insects have two pairs of wings, Diptera (a name that means “two wings”) have only one. The hind pair of wings has become adapted into a pair of specialized structures called halteres, which are partly responsible for the famous aerial maneuverability of these insects. Halteres act as gyroscopes, moving along with the wings to aid in balance and steering, making flies some of the most skillful fliers in the world.

Left: A cranefly with visible halteres beside the wings. Image by Nono64, CC BY-SA 3.0
Right: Closeup of a single cranefly haltere. Assafn, CC BY-SA 4.0

The oldest fossil members of this group come from the Triassic Period, over 220 million years ago. By this time, they already possessed characteristic features of maggot-like larvae and winged adults. Modern groups of flies appeared throughout the Mesozoic Era, followed by a major radiation of modern lineages after the K-Pg Extinction.

Left (top and bottom): Fossil fly larvae preserved in sediments from the Middle Triassic of France. Image from Lukashevich, 2023
Right (A and B): Fossil fly adults preserved in sediments from the Jurassic/Cretaceous Boundary of Russia. Image from Kopeć et al 2021
Left (A and B): The fossil fly Cretolimonia mikolajczyki preserved in Cretaceous Myanmar amber. Image from Kopeć et al 2021
Right: The fossil mosquito Culex malariager preserved in Miocene Dominican amber. Image from Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0

Learn More

Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life (technical, open access)

The earliest fossil mosquito (technical, open access)

Where the Immatures of Triassic Diptera Developed (technical, open access)

Exceptional fossils of Mesozoic Diptera (technical, open access)

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