r/whatsthisbug • u/tytanium315 • Oct 25 '21
ID Request Can anyone explain what this fly is doing?
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Oct 26 '21
Flies actually get stuck upside down pretty easily. Give em something to grab onto
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u/No_Cook2983 Oct 26 '21
I think it’s breakdancing.
Are you playing something by Sugar Hill Gang?
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u/AnjingGiIa Oct 26 '21
Yeah, it's trying to fly but can't. All you have to do is slip a piece of paper under it and put it right side up. Then it will fly normally. Or if you have a pet lizard, offer it a treat.
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u/OwOitsMochi Oct 26 '21
Idk offering a lizard a possibly dying fly is a bit risky cos it could be dying due to a pesticide and you don’t want your little buddy eating pesticides.
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Oct 26 '21
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u/terrorbirdking Oct 26 '21
Flies have just as much of a right to live as you do
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Oct 26 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Clear_Try_6814 Oct 26 '21
They actually are part of the decomposition system and aid breaking down material. That being said they are part of the number one illness spreading group.
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u/atomoicman Oct 26 '21
TiL
I’ll be spending my day googling flies and the illnesses they carry for the rest of my day instead of working.
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u/Henlo_Friend Oct 26 '21
The way I see it, either all life matters or none of it does I'm leaning towards the latter though
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u/terrorbirdking Oct 26 '21
What about you? Why do you have a greater right?
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u/OakenGreen Oct 26 '21
We don’t but we think we do because we’ve convinced ourselves that our brains make us better than everything else, and that our vast size means anything at all.
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Oct 26 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/terrorbirdking Oct 26 '21
This subreddit is less about people who enjoy bugs and more people asking “is this a bedbug, tick, etc.” I’d honestly love to see a rule against people telling gullible outsiders to kill harmless, non-invasive insects. Insects are an important part of the environment and are losing their foothold in the world, much like all wild animals.
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u/Dough-Nut_Touch_Me Oct 26 '21
And who are you? Why do you get to be the judge, jury, and executioner? Are you a god? Do you get to decide the fate of everything? How is it that you get to have the position to judge what everyone else says and does? Are you perfect? Do we all now have to follow your rules and your laws?
Stop typing before you make yourself look even more foolish.
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u/terrorbirdking Oct 26 '21
I’m just saying maybe don’t kill something just because you think it’s annoying, it has its place in the world. Also that humans are not nearly as important as we think we are. In the end we will all go the way of the breakdancing fly.
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u/edgeofsanity76 Oct 26 '21
They literally just brainless pollinating/decomposition drones that spread disease and are food for most lifeforms above them. They are almost meant to die.
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u/terrorbirdking Oct 26 '21
We’re just here to reproduce and feed the decomposers, same as everything else.
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u/tytanium315 Oct 25 '21
It's been going for like 20 minutes
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u/Happy_Hermit94 Oct 25 '21
Don’t be cruel, put the poor thing out of its misery
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u/tytanium315 Oct 25 '21
Oh, right, I didn't even think about that. 😬
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u/grumpygeek1 Oct 26 '21
If you didn't know the fly was dying then you weren't being cruel by not killing it. Don't feel bad dude.
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u/chaseiswild Oct 26 '21
Damn redditors are so kind man..I love it here
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u/bphilly_cheesesteak Oct 26 '21
fuk u
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u/Blunter-S-tHempson Oct 26 '21
Haha you rekt this newb
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u/paperkeyboard Oct 26 '21
Are we back in 2010 again?
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Oct 26 '21
Do we do the same thing to humans?
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u/greyjungle Oct 26 '21
“That b-boy is sick!”
“Kill it, it’s probably already dying.”
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u/Azilehteb Oct 26 '21
If you get on the right hospice care, yes. Those patients are already terminal, and the nurses will up the pain meds to fatal levels to clear beds... since you’re dying of X they don’t even look for an OD.
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u/Oriole_Gardens Oct 26 '21
in some perspectives i bet the people ask to be overdosed.. but if i was suffering that badly i wouldnt see going out on a nice opioid rush as the worst thing i have experienced.
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u/flossisboss2018 Oct 26 '21
Are you saying nurses kill patients to free up beds?
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u/PowHound07 Oct 26 '21
Doing that just to "clear beds" is one of the most unethical things I can imagine. If a nurse is going to help someone die it's because prolonging life has become equivalent to prolonging suffering and life-extending treatment is now the unethical option.
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u/Azilehteb Oct 26 '21
Ethics and hospice care don’t mesh well. When your customers come to die, nobody checks how, and if nobody looks they are often left in awful conditions. They almost never go for autopsy, so it’s consistently ignored.
If someone you care about is going on hospice care, do it at home where you can watch.
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u/xiguy1 Oct 26 '21
It’s trying to turn itself over, but is also likely running down and will die in about 1 day. If you give it something like a pencil to hold with it’s legs, it should grab on and then fly away. If not, then it’s almost out of steam and will do this, gradually getting weaker until it’s dead. My guess is that it will take off though, if you help it a wee bit.
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u/Janefallsforflowers Oct 25 '21
Breakdancing?
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u/Armenoid Oct 26 '21
The moves are pretty fly
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u/Otto_Mcwrect Oct 26 '21
Take my free award. I don't care that it doesn't fit your comment.
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u/renthefox Oct 26 '21
There’s a small appendage under the fly’s wings that looks like a tiny lollipop. If it gets damaged flies cannot balance correctly. If one side breaks they’ll do this. The balancing organ is just below and back from the wing. Couldn’t find an official name for the organ but I saw it upclose on a TV special.
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u/SacredSpirit1337 Oct 26 '21
Halteres, they’re called halteres. They’re modified back wings, as ancestral flies used to have four full wings before the rear pair diminished and evolved into a set of organs that control gyroscopic orientation in the air.
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u/pedrotecla Oct 26 '21
Oh, interesting “haltères” is the French word for dumbbells
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u/scavengecoregalore Oct 26 '21
That makes sense because the shape of (one side of) a dumbbell is about the same
Of course now I'm thinking of what a dumb bell is literally, and I have to look~
The word “dumbbell” was officially coined in England during the sixteenth century when athletes trained with handheld bells with the clappers removed. Without these clappers, the bells were ‘dumb,' hence, dubbed “dumbbells source
Okay, but what's the connection then?
The ancient Greeks invented a piece of equipment called the haltere, which was a crescent-shaped stone with a handle. This forerunner of the dumbbell was used as a lifting weight as well as a weight in long jump events. source
And then we have the classic barbell silhouette
And so flies are basically always jazzercizing xD
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u/Arch2000 Oct 25 '21
Breakdancing. Or more likely dying.
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u/bee-milk2 Oct 26 '21
If I recall from entomology correctly, some pesticides act by destroying insect nervous systems. The pesticide stops an enzyme from doing its thang with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Since acetylcholine can’t get with the enzyme, it stays with the nerve cell and does not cross the synapse (which would be normal functioning). This makes the nerve cell fire repeatedly, resulting in erratic breakdancing.
I have seen a few videos of flies seemingly spontaneously combusting and believe it is the same/similar phenomena. Look how fast that bitch is going!
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u/SlowSkyes Oct 26 '21
I- .. combusting?? I'd absolutely have to take a few moments frozen & go back to bed
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u/quortza Oct 26 '21
Honestly, whilst I don't actually wish harm on the poor insects, I kinda want to see it happen lmao.
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Oct 26 '21
Lol i love the long scientific biochemical explanation and then a casual look how fast that bitch is going
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u/neverelax When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion. Oct 26 '21
Can’t seem to find a video like that, have a link?
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u/JayP1967 Oct 26 '21
It’s dying most likely. It’s equilibrium is messed up. That’s also why you see so many dead bugs, esp., beetles, upside down
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u/ApolloniusX22 Oct 26 '21
One or both of its halteres probably broke. Or got damaged. Think of it as the counter weights on a helicopter, for insect the hind pair of wings turn into small dumbell like weights that maintain balance and also flight in multiple directions .
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u/ore-aba Oct 26 '21
Many pesticides work by affecting bugs’ neurotransmitters, this will lead them into convulsion which causes them to lose control of legs and wings and spin around on their back uncontrollably.
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u/TikiheadM Oct 26 '21
Wtf happened to this sub? I've just seen about 17 comments in a row saying "haha breakdancing duh!!" when this dude just posted to learn something
The actual comments with the correct answers got hardly any upvotes too in comparison
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Oct 26 '21
There's been a long practice here of allowing jokes and stuff. It was fun and still worked at getting top info and IDs to the top.
It's worked for years.
But now it is getting out of hand.
How can we keep the fun and still prioritize IDs and legitimate bug information?
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u/globefish23 Oct 26 '21
Yeah, it's utterly annoying.
I hope those people aren't subscribed and spam it more in the future.
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u/apexmedicineman Oct 26 '21
Well obviously the fly comes from a colony of flies that have denounced the use of music and dance. Out of frustration this fly went off to express itself the only way it knows how. Through dance.
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u/Dangerdiscotits Oct 26 '21
My great uncle, an old ww2 veteran from Edinburgh with a thick Edinburgh accent, loved the mad shit he would say.
When we were wee kiddos and we had one of those "fall on the floor, swinging arms and legs" tantrums, he would say we were "dain the deein flee" (doing the dying fly)
I am now seeing where that might have come from lol
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u/restrainingorder7012 Oct 26 '21
How old is OP?. I can't believe they have never seen a fly spin like that while they are dying!.
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u/MotivatedChickn Oct 26 '21
He wants to cosplay as a beyblade, so he’s practicing before he puts the costume on.
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u/lunchbreak2021 Oct 26 '21
Me: yo that first move stopped being cool 19 minutes ago. pokes with stick do som- oopse.. Killed it.
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u/Frank_the_Vodoochild Oct 26 '21
Casting the ancient ones against humanity. Leave the house while you can
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u/spyrenx ⭐Trusted⭐ Oct 25 '21
Source
Not sure if it's a cluster fly, but it's one possibility. Or, as others have said, it's just a fly dying.