When a fly flaps its wings, it creates a static charge. That charge allows tiny worms to be pulled toward the flies so they can use them as a food source. It sounds like science fiction, like something you'd see on an alien planet on Star Trek.
[i]"Static attack
Tiny parasitic roundworms may be exceptionally good at jumping onto their prey because they are electrically attracted to them. The roundworms leap onto insects like bees or fruit flies to feed on them despite being only a millimetre long. Now, research is revealing that the worms’ aerial paths towards these larger animals align with those of charged particles close to the fly, suggesting that the jumping worms are pulled towards their target so accurately by the static electric charge that insects build up as they flap their wings."[i/]
-NewScience (England)
lukevaliant wrote:
any pictures of this?
Nope! Since I don't subscribe, all I get is a little teaser paragraph. A subscription costs over $100 a year.
Sendai5355
Loc: On the banks of the Pedernales River, Texas
Around here all they attract is my electric flyswatter.
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