Wildlife
Flies, also known as true flies to distinguish them from creatures such as caddisflies and mayflies, are an order of insects which includes such familiar species as the midge, the bluebottle and the fruit fly. Some estimates put the total number of fly species at around a million, though only a fraction of these have been formally described by scientists.
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Stunt flying
Steve Leonard swats up on the key to a house fly's precision aerobatics.
Steve Leonard swats up on the key to a house fly's precision aerobatics.
Airborne menace
Flies cause more human deaths than any other creature.
Flies cause more human deaths than any other creature.
Fly guy
Chris Packham meets fellow geek Tony Irwin to learn more about much maligned flies.
Chris Packham meets fellow geek Tony Irwin to learn more about much maligned flies.
Spectacular swarms
Strange clouds hang over Lake Malawi, as midges gather to breed.
Strange clouds hang over Lake Malawi, as midges gather to breed.
Botfly horror
Programme maker Chadden Hunter enters heart of darkness territory when a bot fly gets under his skin.
Life programme maker Chadden Hunter enters heart of darkness territory when a bot fly gets under his skin. Four years in the making, Life is narrated by David Attenborough and will be shown on BBC One in autumn 2009.
The Flies can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, Indian subcontinent, Mediterranean, North America, South America, United Kingdom, Wales, Ynys-hir nature reserve. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
Mosquitoes
Fungus gnats (genus)
Highland midge (species)
Yellow dung fly (species)Learn more about the other animals and plants that also form these fossils.
AmberTrue flies are insects of the order Diptera (from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings). Their most obvious distinction from other orders of insects is that a typical fly possesses a pair of flight wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax. (Some species of flies are exceptional in that they are secondarily flightless). The only other order of insects bearing two true, functional wings plus any form of halteres are the Strepsiptera, and in contrast to the flies, the Strepsiptera bear their halteres on the mesothorax and their flight wings on the metathorax.
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Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
The wildlife of Life
In autumn 2009, a major new series brought us life as we've never seen it before.
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