Fly
Videos
A fly is an insect of the order Diptera, named for the single pair of wings. The hindwings have evolved into halteres, organs that sense rotation, giving flies precise control of their flight. Diptera
An Anthomyiid species showing characteristic dipteran features: large eyes, small antennae, sucking mouthparts, single pair of flying wings, hindwings reduced to clublike halteres
Fossil brachyceran in Baltic amber. Lower Eocene, c. 50 million years ago
Fossil nematoceran in Dominican amber. Sandfly, Lutzomyia adiketis (Psychodidae), Early Miocene, c. 20 million years ago
Parasitoid
Videos
A parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategie
A parasitoid wasp (Trioxys complanatus, Aphidiinae) ovipositing into the body of a spotted alfalfa aphid (Therioaphis maculata, Calaphidinae), a behaviour that is used in biological pest control
A hyperparasitoid chalcidoid wasp on the cocoons of its host, a braconid wasp, itself a koinobiont parasitoid of Lepidoptera
The head of a sessile female strepsipteran protruding (lower right) from the abdomen of its wasp host; the male (not shown) has wings
Encarsia formosa, an endoparasitic aphelinid wasp, bred commercially to control whitefly in greenhouses