Shoo fly

Shoo fly, don't bug me now....here some blow flies feeding on a tasty smelly fish

Although many insects are termed "flies", only those having one pair of wings belong to the insect order Diptera (as other insects have two pairs of wings). The other wings have evolved and shrivelled to club-shaped organs called halteres, located just behind the base of the wings. Used for balancing in flight, these halteres allow them to fly forwards, backwards, or hover in the air by acting as gyroscopic organs rapidly oscillating in time with the wings. Flies tend to fly in a straight line then make a rapid change in direction before continuing on a different straight path. The directional changes are called saccades and typically involve an angle of 90°, being achieved in 50 milliseconds. How fast can a fly fly? In 1927, Charles Townsend estimated the deer bot fly moved at c. 1,100 km/h. However, this was soon after shown to be impossible, and it is more like—a still impressive—65 km/h. There are a few flies, mostly parasites or those inhabiting islands or alpine areas, that have no wings at all. These are called not "flies", but "walks"—just kidding, I made that name up. Most true flies are soft-bodied and fairly small (less than 1.5 cm long), but

flies can have many different shapes, with many looking like wasps or bees. Most adult flies have large eyes to help them see when they are flying. True flies have complete metamorphosis, with the adult female laying eggs, and then small larvae emerge from those eggs. The larvae are often worm-like and do not have jointed legs. Moulting several times as they grow, larva change into a pupa that eventually transforms into an adult fly.