Helpful Posts Helpful Posts:  0
Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Flies

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    west midlands
    Posts
    726
    Real Name
    les norman

    Flies

    1
    Flies
    2
    Flies
    3
    Flies

  2. #2
    Shadowman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    36,716
    Real Name
    John

    Re: Flies

    Nice shots.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    U.K.
    Posts
    146
    Real Name
    Julian

    Re: Flies

    Number 1 is particularly interesting. What is it doing? It looks like it’s about to eat a gobstopper (well, a fly gobstopper, anyhow).

    Julian

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    west midlands
    Posts
    726
    Real Name
    les norman

    Re: Flies

    No idea what it is doing no 2 was taken seconds after

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    U.K.
    Posts
    146
    Real Name
    Julian

    Re: Flies

    Quote Originally Posted by lesno1 View Post
    No idea what it is doing no 2 was taken seconds after
    So it looks like the “gobstopper” went into its mouth. This is really interesting. I did a quick Google image search of flies eating but don’t see anything like this. I wonder if someone on an insect forum could throw any light on it.

    Julian

  6. #6

    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Birmingham UK
    Posts
    191
    Real Name
    James

    Re: Flies

    I'm not an entomologist, and no expert on the behavior of flies but I know that they 'taste' through their feet and have to liquefy their food first and then suck it up because they dont have mouth parts to bite or chew. They regurgitate some already consumed food which has digestive enzymes and saliva in it. The enzymes begin breaking down the solid food, gradually turning it into a slurry the fly can then suck up.

    Doing a little research I 'discovered' the following...
    During long post‐feeding periods, adult tephritid flies (and apparently other non‐blood feeding Diptera and even Hymenoptera) engage in behaviour consisting of oral extrusion and aeration of liquid droplets of varying size (‘bubbling’), proboscis pumping, and occasional deposition of regurgitate on the substrate that is followed by subsequent re‐ingestion.
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-3032.1992.tb01193.x

    So I would guess this charming creature is doing something similar and bubbling!

    I am reminded of similar behaviour for entirely different reasons exhibited by 'youthful' humans some many decades back

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    U.K.
    Posts
    146
    Real Name
    Julian

    Re: Flies

    That is interesting, James, thanks for the explanation. Les was fortunate to capture a really nice shot of this in action.

    Julian

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    west midlands
    Posts
    726
    Real Name
    les norman

    Re: Flies

    Yes thankyou James i have been puzzled by this i think your explanation is spot on

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •