Insects as annoying as flies occupy an important place in nature. They serve as food for many birds, spiders and other living creatures, and since they breed extremely quickly, their population is not declining. But some of them can be dangerous, such as the famous tsetse fly that is rampant in Africa. Fortunately, modern science has learned at least partly to deal with such a scourge.
Interesting facts about flies
- Some of their species live only in the wild, while others have long adapted to coexistence with man, and without people they can no longer survive.
- Different types of flies feed on completely different foods, from vegetable juices to blood and excrement.
- Many have seen flies rub their paws against each other. They do this in order to clean the paw pads from dust and dirt, since their taste buds are located there. Flies feel the taste precisely with the help of touches with their paws.
- The larvae of these insects are very similar to small worms (interesting facts about insects).
- There are no hairless flies. All of their species are covered with hairs, but thin, so they are not visually striking.
- Fly eyes are made up of several thousand facet segments.
- In addition to colors, flies also distinguish ultraviolet light.
- They are able to smell at a distance of up to 500 meters. The olfactory organs are the antennae growing on the head.
- In ancient Egypt, a golden fly the size of a palm was an honorary military award for bravery. She was awarded especially distinguished warriors (interesting facts about Ancient Egypt).
- The stomach of flies is not adapted to the digestion of solid food, therefore, before eating, they moisten it with saliva.
- Ordinary houseflies live on average about 30 days. During this time, under favorable conditions, they manage to lay up to 3,000 eggs.
- Flies are carriers of dangerous diseases such as typhus, anthrax, tuberculosis, and much more.
- The most dangerous tsetse flies do not bite zebras, because in their vision the striped skin of these ungulates looks like a random flickering of black and white stripes. Zebras themselves are not tameable, but locals have long used part-striped hybrids between zebras and horses in agriculture with might and main, as they are much less likely to suffer from tsetse fly bites than ordinary horses.
- Hessian fly, also called «bread mosquito» due to external resemblance to mosquitoes, it feeds on cereal plants. In the Middle Ages, flocks of these insects more than once devastated the fields no worse than locusts, causing famine in entire areas (interesting facts about mosquitoes).
- The cabbage fly is a real disaster for gardeners and farmers. By itself, it practically does not harm, but its larvae completely eat all the cabbage.
- Pusher flies attack other small insects right in flight, plant them on their spiked paws and suck out their insides.
- Horseflies also belong to flies. They got their name because during feeding they lose interest in everything around them, and they are easy to swat.
- Some types of flies are useful. For example, the tahina fly lays its eggs in the bodies of the larvae of other insect pests.
- In Iceland, New Zealand and Japan, there are amazing species of flies that are born and spend their whole lives near thermal springs, at a temperature of +55- 60 degrees.
- In green flies, the female usually tries to eat the male after mating. To avoid such a fate, the male usually brings the female some food before mating. But this does not always help him.
- The aforementioned tsetse fly is not poisonous in itself, but it carries the most dangerous sleeping sickness. Because of it, several tens of thousands of people and a huge number of livestock die in Africa every year.
- In the United States, California, there are flies whose larvae hatch in lakes of crude oil.
- The larvae of some species of these insects are able to parasitize in the bodies of a wide variety of living creatures, from earthworms to humans.
- All flies lay eggs for reproduction. More precisely, all but one, which produces offspring by live birth.
- 1 kg of pig manure contains enough nutrients to breed 15,000 fly larvae.
- Because of its modest flies weigh very little. About 40 thousand individuals will weigh in the region of 1 kilogram.
- In Ethiopia, scientists have found a way to reduce the population of the most dangerous tsetse flies. They bring flies to special factories, males are sterilized, and females are destroyed. The males are then released into the wild. The fact is that after fertilization, albeit false, the female does not allow other males to approach her.
- The shortest-lived flies are mayflies. They live for about a day.
- The common housefly is able to carry dirt on its paws up to 20-25 km from the place where it picked it up.