Taxa

Diptera

Order

Citation Formats

General Reference

Nature Atlas. "Diptera." Accessed September 8, 2026. https://nature.interactiveatlas.org/taxa/order-diptera.

APA Style

Nature Atlas. (n.d.). Diptera. Retrieved September 8, 2026, from https://nature.interactiveatlas.org/taxa/order-diptera

BibTeX

@misc{natureatlas-diptera,
  author = {Nature Atlas},
  title = {Diptera},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://nature.interactiveatlas.org/taxa/order-diptera},
  note = {Accessed September 8, 2026}
}

The true flies: insects with a single functional pair of wings, the hind pair reduced to small, club-shaped balancing organs called halteres. Diptera includes mosquitoes, houseflies and fruit flies, and its members are major disease vectors as well as important pollinators and decomposers.

Facts

Disputed

Member Species/Taxa Count

160,000 1

Approximate described-species (or, for a genus, described-taxon) count; continually revised as species are newly described, reclassified or synonymized.

Taxonomic Rank

Order 1

Scientific Name

Diptera 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Child Taxon Of

Insecta

Source Catalogue of Life

Sources

1. Catalogue of Life

Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of LifeView the Source

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World