- Eight-legged epicure
- Fancy footwork
- Silk architecture
- Let sleeping spiders lie
- Lazarus fly
- Mile-high club
- Colorful compass clocks
- Reinventing oneself
- Bug brain
- My (six) aching knees
- The ants go marching
- Foreign invasion
- Snorkeling in the rain
- Sunny honey
- Working stiff
- The bees and the birds
- Twinkle, twinkle, little bug
- Body tunes
Lazarus fly
It was not dead, just in a cold-induced stupor. In northerly climates, it is not unusual to see cluster flies literally crawling out of the woodwork on the first warm day after a cold spell. The flies are quite slow until they warm up. If you had not rescued your fly, it would have eventually died because it was too cold to move, eat, or drink.
Different species of flies have different life spans. Flies' life spans also depend on temperature; for example, their life cycle is quicker at 85°F than at 65°F.
Researchers have identified specific genes in fruit flies that play a role in longevity. For example, one such gene is called methuselah; another is I'm not dead yet. (Who said scientists take themselves too seriously?) Mutations in these genes can double the approximately month-long life of the fly.
Research on fly longevity is not aimed at making wise old flies, but instead at understanding the mechanisms of the aging process in flies and humans.