Status: Undetermined
Posted on YouTube: a Japanese video of
trained flies (actually they don't look like flies to me... maybe wasps or bees). They roll on their back and then juggle a ball on their legs. While it may be possible to
train goldfish, I don't think it's possible to train flies. (Though, as one person on
Digg pointed out, in laboratory experiments flies have been shown to be
capable of learning.) My guess is that they've been drugged. This would account for them rolling over. Juggling the ball between their legs is probably a reflex action. (via
Neatorama)
Comments
They are certainly horse flies.
Here there are two wonderful images:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_fly
I don't know how the trick is done but perhaps he put them in a freezer for some minutes. Insects become letargic when refrigerated. I agree that juggling the ball is a reflex action. Perhaps they are glued to the table!
And I think he flipped them upside-down with a small magnet... BAHAHHAHAHAHA!...oh, I get it. Small magnets. Horse flies. Made them swallow miniature horse shoes so the magnets would have something to work with (cause last time I checked, no part of a horse fly was magnetic)...
You people are KILLIN' me, I'm tellin' ya!...
If you spiral* in on a fly on a wall, they stay there.
You do wind up with your finger very close to a fly wondering what now, but that may be fun for some.
Perhaps circular movement gives strange results for compound eyes?
Peter
*Oh alright it's a concentric helix
StarLizard, i think you misread the article you posted. The wasps are not trained, it's that the machine can detect a change in their movements/behavior once they detect a certain odor. But still quite interesting...
...and i hate bugs 😖
And I LOVE bugs.
Well most of the time anyway.
A) Fly away
B) use their second defence (also found in goats) the brain freezes up for 1-7 seconds (subconciously, they have no control over it) in which giving the look that they have suddenly rolled over and died
looks like this person has mastered the direction to come at them in which they panic and go straight to plan B
As for the juggling, it's a reflex, the brain kicking back in or just simply trying to get up
but I've never seen a fly do plan B so It's probably a theory
Why not flies?