What are flies doing when it looks like they are rubbing their hands?
In: Biology
This is not a real explanation (and I bet I’m breaking a rule) but I like to believe that flies rub their hands as a character trait, like in this video: https://twitter.com/vinn_ayy/status/1296155565454958593?s=19
Planning and considering from which angle it can be the most fucking annoying from. Flies are experts in guerilla warfare tactics. Blitz attacks.
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Cleaning themselves, you’ll find cockroaches and house flies groom themselves so often and are cleaner than your house cat and dog
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While grooming seems to be the primary reason, there may be other reasons for the behavior. One idea is that the rubbing helps regenerate an even magnetic field or [remove static](https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2015/07/electric-fields-signal-no-flies-zone.page#:~:text=Professor%20Newland%20explains%3A%20%E2%80%9CWhen%20a,as%20opposite%20charges%20were%20attracted.&text=The%20effect%20on%20the%20wings,changes%20in%20their%20brain%20chemistry.), giving them improved flight abilities. Another is that they are simply sensing the environment more, kinda how a dog sometimes licks its nose over and over while smelling something. Each “rub” may give them a new whiff of the area. These ideas are based on the fact that flies have been found to have built in magnetic sensors that act like [compasses](https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/can-fruit-flies-see-magnetism) and evidence shows they may even *see* magnetism, even [imprinting beneficial locations to offspring through genetic changes](https://www.pnas.org/content/117/2/1216) that guide the fly where to go. So keeping their sensors clean may still be only part of what’s going on.
TLDR: Removing static and getting a better look at where they are.
Correct me if I’m wrong but if my childhood’s obsession of animals books serves me well, they are just grooming. Flies need to be quick and any particles (dust, dirt) on their legs or wings will compromise their agility.
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