It seems you have seen flies flying and then suddenly sitting on the ceiling upside down, creating the impression that they can fly upside down. So many people have this question i.e. how they stand on the ceiling? Does she stop and turn over, does she make a circle or can they fly upside down?
So, can flies fly upside down? No, they cannot fly upside down rather they uses their legs to grab on the ceiling and then does a back flip to grab the ceiling. They land on the ceiling on upside down position giving an impression that they can fly upside down.
Continue reading to know how they do it in details.
Why Does A Fly Still Land On A Person?
Why is she doing this? There are, in general, two answers to this question. The first is apparent or visible and directly striking. A person is a kind of attractant for a fly or at least contains attractants, such as subcutaneous fat and various secretions. However, the manic stubbornness of the fly remains unexplained, which forces it to repeat its attempts again and again.
Why Is It Hard To Slam A Fly?
When you try to slam a fly, you will notice that she gets faster than you. You might be wondering how these flies deceive the message so fast.
This question was raised in the last episode of our BBC World Service, which talked about the superpowers of tiny insects like flies. The heart of the answer is that flies observe our world in slow motion. For instance, flies pay attention to the clock with a second hand. For a turtle, this speed is twice as fast. For most species of flies, every tick of the clock persists about four times longer. The anticipated pace of time is varied for diverse species.
This is so because living things observe the atmosphere in the mode of a continuous video. They build this picture based on images coming from the eyes to the brain in the separate flashes form. In humans, such outbreaks appear to occur 60 per second, and, in flies – 250.
Can Flies Fly Upside Down?
As you know, a fly is an extremely mobile insect. Fly flies beautifully and nimbly runs on any surface — the organs of motion. Many insects are endowed with high-speed and maneuverable aircraft. In-flight virtuosos are famous not only for dragonflies but also for some flies. The common housefly is provided with all the necessary devices and has a fantastic ability to produce precisely coordinated controlled actions.
It can take off without a run, instantly stop its fast flight, freeze in the air, fly upside down, and even backward. In seconds, she can demonstrate much complex aerobatics, including a loop. Also, flies can perform actions in the air that other insects can do only on the ground, for example, to clean their feet on the fly.
The magnificent arrangement of the organs of movement of the fly allows it to carry out fast running and natural progression on any surface, including smooth, sheer, and even on the ceiling. The leg of the fly ends with a pair of claws and a small pad between them.
Thanks to such an appropriate “design,” she shows an amazing ability to walk on such surfaces on which other insects cannot even stay. Moreover, fly with her claws, she clings to the smallest irregularities on the plane, and for moving along a mirror-smooth surface, there are pillows covered with hollow hairs. Through these special “hoses,” an oily secret is released from the individual glands. The surface tension forces created by him perfectly keep the fly on the glass.
Flies, like bees, do not have specialized organs of gravity. But to regulate flow, they always determine the direction of gravity by the joint indicators of numerous mechanoreceptors. These receptors are part of the fly analyzer system, due to which the loads in the joints of the antennae, chest with head, abdomen, and six legs are determined.
The skin receptors of flies form a rich and complex information field. If they are stimulated by contact, then the directional movement of the insect can be caused, associated with its unconditioned reflexes. With the help of ground beetles, flies perceive angular accelerations and turns. And as a statolith, the flies have a massive head that rests on a thin neck. These organs are involved in the constant reflex control of fast movements.
Flies demonstrate an impressive counter-rotation reflex due to the ability to sense turns when moving with the help of sensory systems of limbs and body segments. This helps insects maintain a constant direction of movement. So, after leaving the L-shaped labyrinth, they immediately turn in the direction opposite to the end of the corridor.
You must have seen flies flying on the air and landing on the ceiling. How are they able to achieve that if they cannot fly upside down? You may think that flies can do a barrel roll. However, it is not possible for flies to fly upside down. This is because they cannot gain altitude when flying sideways. But how are they able to grip the ceiling surface?
The trick on this concept is that their legs can be able to grip a surface within a short time tightly. They fly upright up to very close to the ceiling and hold the ceiling with its front legs. Once it plants the front paws on the ceiling, the fly completes a backflip for landing on the roof.
The Various Forms of Flies Behavior
Expedient behavior accompanies the entire life path of flies and ensures successful life activity and reproduction of both an individual and the species as a whole. Flies have instinctive response, which is unique in their specificity and variety – food, protective, reproductive, and social circle. And at the same time, the hereditary program of flies, like other animals, contains a mechanism that is designed to correct their instinctive behavior in response to a change in the situation.
1. Eating Behavior
The eating behavior of flies is complex. It is a well-organized set of actions and activities. The general term “eating behavior” refers to various activities of a living creature, including flies, associated with the processes of search (food acquisition) and eating, manipulating it, etc. Flies eat, depending on whether they belong to a particular species, plant sap, decomposing organic matter, manure, feces. Some of them are predators, and representatives of some species are bloodsuckers. And in each of these many cases, flies have their own specific, species-typical food strategy.
2. Protective Behavior
Flies are endowed with excellent means to fight for their lives. Each species has its characteristics. As shown above, it is impossible to approach the fly unnoticed, even from behind. After all, her large compound eyes with excellent visual acuity occupy almost the entire head of this insect and see it in all directions.
Usually basking in the sun, they instantly take off when any danger occurs. And some flies, such as the Kory, are provided with a perfect pricking organ, and their saliva contains strong poison, from which the attacked insects instantly die. Kory can bite a person if you catch a fly with your hand. Such a bite is no less painful than a bee sting. The hornet pick, which is often found on bread plants, is less dangerous but scares off the enemy by releasing a few drops of an unpleasantly smelling whitish liquid.
3. Reproductive Behavior
The complex of reproductive processes and behavior of flies includes everything related to their reproduction. Firstly, this is the unique system of a copy of the body. Secondly, these are mating rituals and signaling for the meeting of males and females, and thirdly, this is laying eggs, breeding offspring, etc. Of course, flies of most species are not burdened with care for the family. But some of their species are endowed with surprising reproductive behavior. For this purpose, flies of different species are provided with a variety of sophisticated devices and behavioral mechanisms.
4. Social Behavior
Another form of complex behavior of flies is their social behavior. Even though flies are mainly characterized by “individualism,” a certain number of their species are characterized by some social manifestations transmitted by inheritance. The unique system of the body coordinates the development of larvae that hit the soil at different times so that all the pupae finish it almost simultaneously. Therefore, within a few days, a large number of adult flies immediately appear from the pupae. Moreover, the exit of gadfly from pupae occurs at a particular time of the day.
So, Are Flies “Harmful” Or “Useful”?
Since flies proliferate and are incredibly prolific, their impact on the environment is very significant. Often species of flies are distributed into groups depending on their “usefulness” or “harmfulness” to nature and humans. Each species has its specific purpose on our planet, is a carrier of unique genetic information, and occupies its ecological niche and position in the cycle of substances in natural biocenoses. Flies of most species must perform various functions on Earth, including sanitary ones, which causes accelerated decay of multiple residues of plant and animal origin.
Welcome to my blog. I have been doing pest control for years since my house, garden and pets were always attacked by various kinds of pests and as a result I had to know proper pest control techniques that works. In this blog I share all the tips and tricks that I know and I hope you’ll find it helpful.