Close up of the largest flies on the planet

In the world there are more than 100,000 species of flies, of which the largest is the wood fly body longer than 8 cm or the foot crane 23 cm long.

The largest fly on the planet

The insects we often call flies of the Diptera group have at least 110,000 different species. Some species have their own outstanding characteristics. Among them, Mydas flies and wooden flies top the list of the world's largest flies.

The largest species in the Mydas group is Gauromydas heros (or Mydas heros), 7cm in length. However, Erica McAlister, London's Natural History Museum expert, measured the real specimen, saying it was only about 6cm long.

(Photo: London Museum of Natural History)

Mydas fly group has the scientific name Mydiae , including about 400 species. They are found all over the world, mainly in hot climates along with shrub vegetation.

An unspecified Mydas fly.(Photo: Bilogoandre)

This may also be related to the theory of "extreme size of flies ", caused by the Earth's climate and atmosphere. According to a study from 2005, habitat temperatures determine the metabolic rate of flies, so they only reach a certain size.

Wood fly Pantophthalmus tabaninus mature.(Photo: PREMAPHOTOS / NPL)

The wood fly has the scientific name Pantophthalmidae , living in Central and South America, along the region from Mexico to Brazil and Paraguay.

The name of the wooden fly is set according to the growth habit. The female wood fly lays eggs on dead stalks, hatching larvae dig holes themselves to live and grow inside. To do so, their lower jaws soon developed. For many months, their main food was fermented sap in the decaying core.

Textured wooden fly Pantophthalmus bellardi on display in the London Museum of Natural History.With wingspan 8.5cm, their size is far superior to the above Mydas flies.(Photo: London Museum of Natural History.)

" The length from the head to the abdomen of the largest wooden fly in the museum is 8 cm ," McAlister said. " Wood does not contain much nutrition, so they need to eat a lot for a long time to grow." And finally when they grow up, they're really giants.

Male wood fly (left) and female (Pantophthalmidae).(Photo: London Museum of Natural History)

Adults only live for a few weeks, almost not eating, their mouths are poorly developed, living in seclusion and less moving. They live mainly looking for partners and spawn. In general, wooden flies are so scary but quite shy and harmless.

The wooden fly head Opetiops alienus has a long and pointed part protruding like a big shot, in fact this is just their egg tube - according to McAlister.(Photo: London Museum of Natural History)

In addition, another candidate is the crane fly or grass spider, the scientific name is Holorusia brobdignagius, because they have very long legs.(Photo: LiveInternet)

In the book Animal Record , naturalist Mark Carwardine measures the length when straightening the crane fly is 23 cm. With these feet, it is up to each person to see if they are the biggest fly.