why do flies rub their hands together after they land?
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A sense of “cleanliness” (put very, very simply) is pretty universal throughout most of the animal kingdom that is physically capable of cleaning themselves. Even those that dont have the brain capacity to consider clenliness still groom themselves or have a method of shedding themselves as a response to the ever increasing irritation of being eaten alive by tiny things.
For flies… the tiny little mites on them are the size of flies to us, it’d be distracting at best, and possibly interfere with flying in enough numbers. Then theres the fungus and bacteria left over from landing on and eating sewage and rotten meat. Both of which reproduce insanely fast and could literally take over a fly’s brain.
Flies probably don’t care about being clean of course but over hundreds of millions of years the ones that accidentally groomed themselves better lived longer than the poor groomers having a bazillion more fly babies which all got better and better at grooming themselves to the point where we can clearly observe their grooming behaviors.
Flies rub their hands together to clean themselves off, We often think of flies as gross, dirty pests, so it may come as a surprise to learn that they’re actually cleaning themselves. Flies have small sensors all over their bodies that carry taste receptors.
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Shameless plug for /r/flies where I just became active.
Flys follow a stereotyped cleaning procedure. They clean themselves from tail to head passing the accumulated waste along as they do so. The rubbing together of the forelegs signifies the end of the process as they feel how big the dirt ball has gotten and rub it away. Depending on the SIZE of the ball they will start the sequence again or stop. It is their final check. They also occasionally run the process in reverse from head to tail.
Edit: Thanks for the gold kind redditor.
When flies land and rub their front legs together, it’s not because they have hands, but rather because they are cleaning their sensory organs. Flies have specialized sensory hairs on their legs and other body parts, which help them detect movement, temperature, and chemical signals from their surroundings. By rubbing their legs together, flies remove dust, debris, and other particles that might interfere with their ability to sense their environment accurately. It’s their way of keeping their sensory organs clean and functioning optimally.
Every response I’m seeing is like, “flies smell and taste with their feet”, “flies clean themselves after landing”, “flies don’t have teeth so they absorb food with their tongue”.
What the fuck? Why the fuck have we not completely eradicated these abominations from existence? I don’t want to learn anything more about flies. Thank you.
They’re saying “Muahahahah, I’m going to make that person smack his own face again. 25 points”
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