Why is it so difficult to swat a fly? A team of insect experts explains how a fly’s sophisticated vision allows it to quickly react to visual cues.
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Articles on Flies
Displaying 1 - 20 of 31 articles
Forensic entomologists analyse blowflies and cocoon cases to help solve crimes.
The painful bites of female march flies can ruin your day at the beach. When we’re not there, they bite wallabies, birds, and even reptiles.
A fly does some of its digesting outside its body before it even eats any food.
New findings suggest the loss of fertility at high temperatures is a major threat to the survival of some species.
Planting a garden for winter-active insects is a wonderful way to support local biodiversity. Your garden will thrive with the free pollination and pest control services the insects provide.
Not all flowers smell good, to people at least, but their scents are a way to attract pollinators.
Entomologists wonder if the insects currently pollinating farmed cacao are the right ones for the task.
Chemicals banned in the EU were recently granted an exemption for limited use in the UK.
Summer can bring out the bugs. Here’s what to do if you miss a spot when applying insect repellent.
Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life.
Savvy female stable flies prefer to lay their eggs on donkey and sheep dung. Knowing where they choose to do this will help us manage disease.
Fossil flies from what is now Denmark reveal some striking similarities between insect eyes 54 million years ago, and our own vision today.
How the zebra got its stripes is not only a just-so story, but an object of scientific inquiry. New research suggests that stripes help zebras evade biting flies and the deadly diseases they carry.
It’s easy to whip out the fly spray, but our fondness for pesticides can bring knock-on effects such as increased resistance, and harming beneficial insects in and around our homes.
Bush flies and blowflies all vomit on their food, but other flies are a little more polite at the dinner table and don’t vomit at all.
Footballers came under attack from a swarm of flies on the Volgograd pitch. But there’s more to midges and gnats than meets the eye.
Flies need good grip because they often sleep upside down.
Why are flies so easily able to evade our attempts to swat them?
How do you rid your kitchen of pesky
fruit flies? A scientist who researches them explains.
Top contributors
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Cameron Webb is a Friend of The Conversation.Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CSIRO
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Director of the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, Florida International University
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Florida International University
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Lecturer in Ecology, University of New England
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Professor, School of BioSciences and Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne
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Executive Officer, National Collections & Marine Infrastructure, CSIRO
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Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University
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Researcher, Macquarie University
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Research Scientist, The University of Queensland
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Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol
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Honorary Fellow, Biosecurity Flagship, CSIRO
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CSIRO
