Why Are Flies So Hard To Swat? - video Dailymotion

Skip to player Skip to main content

2 months ago

One secret is their specialized hind wings. High-speed cameras show that flies' modified hind wings help with their speedy takeoffs.

Category

Transcript

Display full video transcript

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

01:26and 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.

Be the first to comment

Add your comment

Recommended

1:33

Up next

Watch This Spectacular Video That Captures A Fiery Re-Entry Of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy

17 hours ago

1:57

NASA's Artemis 2 Astronauts Tackle Emergency Spacecraft Escape Drill At Night

19 hours ago

8:03

SpaceX Ax-4 Crew Enters Space Station After Docking

19 hours ago

1:31

Retirement Realities: 5 Things That Don't Follow You Into Retirement

16 hours ago

1:37

How To Save Money On Last-Minute Vacations

20 hours ago

2:03

How Do You Define Wealth - The Answer May Surprise You

21 hours ago

14:43

How To Create A Patch On The Boss GX-100

1 week ago

6:06

Alex Lifeson Epiphone Les Paul Standard Axcess Sound Demo | Music Radar

3 weeks ago

2:25

What Was the Largest Empire In the World?

43 minutes ago

2:59

Could Antarctica Ever Be Habitable?

19 hours ago

3:52

Out of Africa Theory Changed

20 hours ago

0:46

Super-Strong Magnet Literally Blew The Doors Off A Tokyo Laboratory

21 hours ago

2:54

What Is Dark Matter

21 hours ago

2:11

Do You Need To Eat Meat To Get Protein?

21 hours ago

1:53

Antarctica Could Lose Its Ice Forever

21 hours ago

0:33

Video Captures Underwater Volcano Spewing Mud And Methane In The Barents Sea

23 hours ago

3:47

Will Brain Transplants Ever Be Possible?

23 hours ago

2:22

A Bottle Of Merlot That Was Aged In Space And Worth Over $1 Million

23 hours ago

1:31

The Birth Of Dawn Storm Auroras On Jupiter

1 day ago

1:27

Could Black Hole-Sized Magnetic Fields Be Created on Earth?

1 day ago

1:58

Ancient Mummy Coffins Discovered In Egypt’s Saqqara

1 day ago

2:36

Warty Pig Is The Oldest Animal Cave Art

1 day ago

4:15

Which Animals Will Survive Climate Change

1 day ago

6:58

1st Image of Our Galaxy's Black Hole Heart

2 days ago

1:05

Bigfin Squid: Magnapinna, Spotted In Tonga Trench

2 days ago