A fly passes your head and comes close; you snatch a flyswatter or pick up a magazine and come carefully – and you’ll be on strike!
But no matter how fast you are, the fly is almost always faster, and usually gets away from your wall and escapes unscathed. (Is he trying to tempt you ?!)
Flies have many modifications that give them higher speed, movement and comprehension, making them very good at detecting and avoiding even the fastest exchanges. And new evidence shows that the flies’ modified rear wings play an important role in their rapid launch – often just in bad time.
Related: 7 amazing ninja bug skills
House flies (Musca domestica) belong to the order Diptera, or true flies. Diptera flies have diptera wings that have developed into nut-like structures at the ends, called halteres. Their vibrations help the insects to stabilize their bodies while in flight, by sensing body rotation and sending information to the wings.
Flies in the subgroup Diptera Calyptratae, which includes houseflies, also animate their halteres as they walk, but scientists did not know why. In a study published online January 13, 2021 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, researchers studied Calyptratae flies to see if haltere oscillation affected their transition into the air, directing additional sensory input to help coordinate movements in the muscles of the skull. wings and legs.
Using high-speed cameras to capture flies with a free and attached lab during construction, the scientists recorded a film at speeds of up to 3,000 frames per second. They found that Calyptratae flies launched themselves about five times faster than other flies; their takeoffs required about 0.007 seconds (7 milliseconds) and just one flight stroke.
“None of the Calyptratae lasted longer than 14 milliseconds [0.014 seconds], “the researchers reported. In comparison, takeoffs of non-Calyptratae flies lasted about 0.039 seconds (39 milliseconds) and required about four wing beats, according to the study.
Next, the researchers removed the halteres, which all Diptera flies have. Calyptratae flies that did not have these knot structures took much longer time to air, but removal time in non-Calyptratae flies without halteres was not affected. Persistence during takeoff also suffered with haltere removal, but only in Calyptratae flies. For example, the insects Calyptratae called inflamed flies that attempted to remove without the halteres “always led to an accident,” the experts said.
“Haltere’s use therefore allows for greater speed and stability during rapid escape – except in the cover of Calyptratae,” the scientists in the study wrote.
In the blink of an eye
Halteres isn’t the only secret weapon in the fly’s arsenal; once a fly is carried in the air, it can execute maneuvers that would be the envy of a fighter jet pilot. Fruit flies can change course in less than 1 / 100th of a second – about 50 times faster than your eye can sink, Live science previously reported. In experiments, well-timed flight flaps generated enough force to move the flies away from a predator while in mid-air.
“These flies go up to 90 degrees – some are almost upside down – to increase their force, and escape,” said Florian Muijres, who studied aviation biomechanics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and now at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, on Living Science in 2014.
Flies also have unique insights, which help them plan their leap away from danger. About 200 milliseconds before removal, fruit flies use a visual intrusion warning of imminent danger to change the situation and identify the directions that will launch them to safety, wrote ” science in 2008 in the journal Conventional biology.
In fact, the developed understanding juggles up to six times more visual input in one second than humans can, the BBC reported in 2017.
Animal brains see time moving by processing images at distances known as “rate fusion flicker,” a term that describes how many images push into their brains. every second. Roger Hardie, professor emeritus of cell neurology at the University of Cambridge in England, injected electrons into fly eye photoreceptors to measure their flicker fusion rate, measuring it 400 times per second; the average meltdown for people is around 60, according to the BBC. This means that a movement that you see as “normal” will move like a slow movement to a fly.
With all these lifting benefits, it’s no surprise that the fly you’re trying to swim can escape. However, one approach that could improve your chances is to focus your swat at a place where the fly is likely to go, rather than where it is resting, she said. Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena The Independent in 2011.
“It’s better not to reverse the start position of the fly,” Dickinson said. “Go a little further with that to anticipate where the fly is going to jump.”
First published on Living Science.