Releasing and Recapturing Flies in the Mojave Desert (IMAGE)

California Institute of Technology

Releasing and Recapturing Flies in the Mojave Desert

Caption

Experiments to measure a fruit fly's top speed involved releasing tens of thousands of fruit flies and luring them away with fragrant cocktails of fermenting apple juice. The flies took about 16 minutes to travel one kilometer. Fully-fed, these fruit flies can fly for three continuous hours, implying that the insects could cover a distance of 12 to 15 kilometers in a single flight.

Credit

Floris van Breugel

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