How Fruit Flies Remove Their Own Heads

Despite the fact that they do not have brains, insects can perform basic functions like reflexes and digestion. These functions make them able to survive even without the presence of a brain. However, new research suggests that insects can also experience chronic pain after they have been injured. This pain can persist for months or even years after the initial injury has healed. Another interesting thing about flies is that they have extremely fast digestion. They defecate each time they land, including the time they feed on another meal.

The researchers found that when a fruit fly gets dirty, it can spend up to 20 minutes cleaning itself. In this process, it uses its legs and other parts to brush off the dust. It uses its front legs to clear dust from its eyes and rear legs to clean its abdomen, wings, and thorax. During the process, the fly also stops to clean off the dust on its body.

In a separate experiment, Seeds and his colleagues manipulated the fly’s movements to activate multiple components of the grooming process. The normal trigger for a fly to begin grooming is the presence of dust on its body part. By manipulating these movements genetically, the researchers were able to manipulate individual movements in the fly.