How Strong Are Flies?
WouterFlies are amazing creatures and they are capable of amazing feats. The smallest species can leap to incredible heights. Flies use an incredibly fast and accurate motor system to move from one place to another. This incredibly fast motor system makes them able to move quickly, even under great threat. The researchers found that flies can respond to a threat within a few milliseconds.
A killer fly, which is a predatory species found in Europe, can leap from resting position into mid-air to catch another fly. It can do this because it has more mitochondria (the “batteries” of biological cells) than other flies. Moreover, the fly has the ability to see in dim light which is why it’s faster than a human’s eye.
Despite their small size, flies can lift a weight of almost 110 pounds. To lift this weight, it would take five million of these tiny insects. Each fly has about one square inch of gripping surface, so the same weight of an adult woman would be lifted by about 39,680 flies at one time.
It’s difficult to estimate how strong a fly is, but flies are remarkably resilient. Their brains are 1 million times smaller than ours, so they have developed skills that allow them to escape with relative ease. Despite their minuscule brains and eyesight, they are so fast and agile that they can evade almost every swat.
