Flesh Fly regurgitating its 'Cooling Bubble'
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Flesh Fly regurgitating its 'Cooling Bubble'
Nikon 1 J5 / Nikon 1 70-300 / 4.5-5.6 VR / third party auto extension tubes / Zacuto 2.5x mag. optical finder. Small Gitzo aluminium tripod fitted with Novoflex fork mount; 300mm 1/200sec f11 ISO400 ... FF equiv. 810mm (1" sensor thus 2.7 crop factor)
A long lens, and thus long lens to subject distance, enables a high 'hit rate' for this type of photography.
BW
dunk
Last edited by dunksargent on Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
Very interesting. I wonder why the fly doesn't just move to the shade though. That would be far more efficient than this laborious process.
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Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
Also part of its digestive process.
dunk
And now for something completely different.
Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
Yes, that makes more sense than the thermal explanation. It may be similar to what bees do with their gathered nectar to make honey. That gives it a reason to be in the sun. If so, it is not trying to cool, just the reverse.
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Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
And now for something completely different.
Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
Thanks for the link. Very interesting. Almost all of the things they found could be just as well explained by the digestive hypothesis, but the fact that they do this bubbling behavior with higher frequency as soon as the lights go out does suggest that at least one of its functions is to cool the fly. It is too bad they didn't examine the relative cooling advantage (or disadvantage) of sitting in the sun and bubbling, versus sitting in the shade. Or maybe they would get too cold in the shade?
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Re: Flesh Fly Inflating its Cooling Bubble
From what I've read, different parts of an insect's anatomy are at different temperatures and it's advantageous for an insect's wing muscles to be warm ... Moths 'shiver' to keep their wing muscles warm ... hence some moth species are 'flight ready' on very cold nights. A fly 'in the shade' might not keep its wing muscles and wings as warm (and thus not optimally flight ready) as a fly basking in sunshine. Maintaining flight readiness assists a fly's ability to escape its predators. Some photomacrographers chill their specimens to prevent them escaping / flying.Lou Jost wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 8:31 amThanks for the link. Very interesting. Almost all of the things they found could be just as well explained by the digestive hypothesis, but the fact that they do this bubbling behavior with higher frequency as soon as the lights go out does suggest that at least one of its functions is to cool the fly. It is too bad they didn't examine the relative cooling advantage (or disadvantage) of sitting in the sun and bubbling, versus sitting in the shade. Or maybe they would get too cold in the shade?
dunk
And now for something completely different.