The order Diptera includes insects which can be the most annoying to humans as well as numerous others that are often misunderstood or ignored. The bloodsucking and sometimes disease-passing pests like mosquitoes, blackflies, horseflies and the irritating common housefly may all be harmful to humans but in the natural world they are an important source of food for other animals.

March Fly		Blue Bottle
Fly		Green Bottle
Robber fly		Robber fly

Other members of Diptera are important pollinators. This group includes the the Hover or Garden flies which look a lot like wasps or bees but don't sting in the least bit. In fact, they are sometimes referred to as bee, wasp or yellow-jacket mimics.

Parasitic Fly Tachina grossa		Flower Fly Hadromyia crawfordi
Hover Fly Dasysyrphus osborni		Toxomerus Flower Fly, Toxomerus geminatus
Conopid Fly, Myopa buccata		Thick-headed Fly Physocephala sp
Bee Fly, Exoprosopa dorcadion		Sinuous Bee Fly, Hemipenthes sinuosa
Syrphid, Sericomyia militaris		Hover fly melangyna
Helophilus		Helophilus

The important feature which places all of these insects into this diverse order is the fact that they all have only two wings. "Diptera" means "two-winged" in Greek. They also have tiny drum-stick shaped organs called halteres beneath each wing which are used as stabilizers.