Sri Lanka is a tropical island situated close to the southern tip of India. The invertebrate fauna is as large as it is common to other regions of the world. There are about 2 million species of arthropods found in the world, and more are still being discovered to this day. This makes it very complicated and difficult to summarize the exact number of species found within a certain region.
This is a list of the dipterans found from Sri Lanka.
The exact number of species confined to the country is very difficult to note down, due to few researchers and publications of papers focusing them.[6] Most of the cited references are from way back in 1900s, and very few are from 2010 revisions.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] In 2020, two stalk-eyed flies were described from Pundaluoya and Udawattakele.[15]
There are more than 1,341 dipterans found in the island, which earns fourth largest insect order found.[16]
^Some authors draw a distinction in writing the common names of insects. True flies are in their view best written as two words, such as crane fly, robber fly, bee fly, moth fly, and fruit fly.
^Grimaldi, David (July 1988). "Drosophila (Hirtodrosophila) chandleri (Diptera: Drosophilidae) a New Species from Sri Lanka with Broad-Headed Males". Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 96 (3): 323–326. JSTOR25009694.
