One secret is their specialized hind wings. High-speed cameras show that flies' modified hind wings help with their speedy takeoffs.
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00:00Why are flies so hard to swat?
00:04A fly buzzes past your head and lands nearby.
00:08You grab a fly swatter and you strike.
00:12But no matter how quick you are, the fly escapes unharmed.
00:16What is it that makes flies so hard to swat?
00:20Flies have many adaptations that give them extra speed, maneuverability
00:24and perception, making them very, very good at
00:28protecting and evading your swats. And new evidence shows
00:32that one of the ways they do that is with vibrations of stick-like structures
00:36with a knob at the end, called halteers.
00:40When halteers vibrate during flight, they're sensing body rotations and
00:44transmitting information to the flies' wings, which helps flies to stabilize their bodies.
00:48However, houseflies also vibrate their halteers
00:52while walking, but scientists didn't know why. So they looked at
00:56houseflies and their close relatives to see if oscillating halteers
01:00affected how the flies launch into the air.
01:02Scientists filmed flies during takeoff using high-speed cameras,
01:06recording footage at speeds up to 3,000 frames per second.
01:10They found that houseflies, and other closely related flies,
01:14launch themselves around five times faster than other flies,
01:18and with just one wingbeat.
01:20When scientists removed those flies' halteers,
01:22it took them longer to take off, and some took a nosedive and crash-landed.
01:28But halteers aren't the only secret weapon in a fly's evasive arsenal.
01:32Fruit flies can change course in under one one-hundredth of a second,
01:36about 50 times faster than an eye can blink.
01:40Flies also have exceptional vision, which helps them react to a threat,
01:44and adjust their trajectory within milliseconds before takeoff.
01:50With all these built-in advantages,
01:52it's no wonder that the fly you're trying to swat
01:54can easily escape and just buzz off.
01:58Aerodynamic flies.
02:02Just another one of life's little mysteries.