Latest Flies Stories
Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists from the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory recently revealed that X-rays could provide information on a novel biological structure that could possibly be developed into a sleeping sickness drug. The findings were discovered with the help of a free-electron laser that is considered the most powerful in the world. Sleeping disease...
[ Watch The Video ] redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online According to a study in the July 24th issue of Current Biology, bats eavesdrop on the sounds of fly sex to earn themselves a super-sized dinner deal: two flies for the price of one. For flies living with bats in a cowshed, sex really could be the death of you. The study is the first to show that increased conspicuousness to hungry predators is a huge downside of sex, the researchers say. "When mating,...
The smallest fly ever discovered is just 0.40 millimeters in length, and is a member of a fly family that is known for 'decapitating' ants A new species of phorid fly from Thailand is the smallest fly ever discovered. At just 0.40 millimeters in length, it is 15 times smaller than a house fly and five times smaller than a fruit fly. The tiny fly, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia, and it belongs to a fly family (Phoridae) that is known for...
Maxion Labs Founder Discovers Innovative Solution to Garbage Can Breeding of Maggots and Flies Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) June 11, 2012 Fly Erase is the innovation developed by Dan O'Connor, a recent Bowling Green State University graduate looking for employment in an extremely tight job market who knew he needed to rely on his entrepreneurial spirit to gain a foothold in this economy. O'Connor uncovered direction for his energies in his parents' trash cans, while taking his parents'...
Northwestern Europe harbors one of the best known biotas , thanks to the long faunistic and floristic traditions practiced there. However, some animal groups are far better known than others. The diversity of true flies there is fascinating, and undescribed species of flies, midges and gnats are not uncommon. Because Northwestern Europe was almost totally glaciated as recently as 10 000 years ago, endemic animal species of that region are generally lacking, or are exceptions. Hence, most NW...
For the first time, scientists have created a satellite-guided plan to effectively control the tsetse fly – an African killer that spreads “sleeping sickness” disease among humans and animals and wipes out $4.5 billion in livestock every year. Michigan State University researchers developed the plan using a decade’s worth of NASA satellite images of Kenyan landscape and by monitoring tsetse movement. With unprecedented precision, the plan can tell where and when to direct...
Targeting the vital enzymes in female flies could aid tsetse reduction efforts An unprecedented study of intra-uterine lactation in the tsetse fly, published 18 April 2012 in Biology of Reproduction's Papers-in-Press, reveals that an enzyme found in the fly's milk functions similarly in mammals, making the tsetse a potential model for lipid metabolism during mammalian lactation. Better yet, reduced levels of this enzyme led to poor health in offspring, leading the authors to suggest...
The study has been published in the Journal of Applied Entomology Coming from the Asian continent, Drosophila suzukii has only been in Spain for a short time. Far away from slipping through into the Iberian Peninsula, it accelerated towards the north of Europe where it has already crossed the Alps. Amongst its preferred target are cherries and red fruits but any type of fruit is suitable for it to lay its eggs. This insect is posing a threat to the fruit of more and more European...
Research presented at the March 7-11, 2012, conference in Chicago includes studies on metabolism, aging, and monarch butterfly migration The Genetics Society of America's 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 7-11 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, will showcase diverse efforts to understand basic biological processes through the easy-to-study fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and other insects. Drosophila provides the ideal model system for studying biological...
New species of parasitic spider flies discovered in Australia Spider flies are a rarely collected group of insects. Adults are considered important pollinators of flowers, while larvae live as internal parasitoids of juvenile spiders. Eight genera are recorded in Australasia, including four genera in the subfamily Panopinae, a group of large, hairy, often metallic colored adults whose larvae specialize as parasitizing mygalomorph spiders such as tarantulas, trap door and funnel web...
Latest Flies Reference Libraries
The Small-headed Fly or Hunchback Fly family consists of approximately 520 species. They have a notable odd appearance featuring a small head, a hunched back and a long tubular feeding appendage. Their compound eyes generally have large facets on top and smaller ones on bottom. They most often live in moderately dry tropical areas. They are often parasites of spiders and will kill its host in the process. Larvae will latch onto a spider's leg and makes its way up to the body and will...
The Agromyzidae family, often called Leaf-miner flies, consists of 2500 species worldwide. Species vary in size and wingspans from less than four hundredth of an inch to one quarter of an inch. Adults can be distinguished by the hardening on the frontal vitta of the head which leads to the area having a different color and texture from the rest of the head. All species feature compound eyes that are normally oval and smaller in size. The wings are usually glassy and transparent...
The Bombyliids are a large family of flies with hundreds of genera. Their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some protection from predators. The larval stage are predators or parasitoids of other insect eggs and larvae. The adult females usually deposit eggs in the vicinity of possible hosts, quite often in the burrows...
The crane flies (Tipulidae) are a family of insects that closely resemble giant mosquitoes. Like the mosquito, they are in the order Diptera (flies) and are sometimes called mosquito eaters, mosquito hawks, or skeeter eaters. They are also one of three unrelated arthropods named Daddy long-legs. The other two are the harvestmen and vibrating, cellar or house spider. As such, Crane Flies are wrapped up in the myth of being the most poisonous spider, but unable to bite humans. This is...
PHOTO CAPTION: Eriothrix rufomaculata (Photo taken by Keith Edkins) The tachinid flies (family Tachinidae) are by far the largest and most important group of insect parasitic flies, with over 1300 species in North America. It is a diverse group with some resembling drab houseflies and others brilliantly colored. All species are parasitic in the larval stage, and many are important natural enemies of major pests. Many species of tachinids have been introduced into North America from...
