Claire Weiss' Online Dicotomous Insect Identification Key
3
Insects with halteres for front wings


 

Strepsiptera, or twisty-wing insects, lack front wings.  Instead they have halteres, club shaped appendages that work much like gyroscopic devices in fllight.  Strepsiptera are the only family of insects that have halteres in the place of their front wings (diptera, flies, have halteres for back wings).


http://www.strepsiptera.uni-rostock.de/e/strepsiptera_images/images.html