Rare fly reappears in Africa
Source: Agencies |
December 9, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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SCIENTISTS in Kenya have located one of the world's rarest and oddest-looking flies after a long hunt for an insect dubbed the "terrible hairy fly," experts said yesterday.
Scientists first came across the yellow-haired fly in 1933 and then again in 1948. Since then, at least half a dozen expeditions have visited a site between the towns of Thika and Garissa to find it again.
The Mormotomyia hirsuta looks more like a spider with its hairy legs, scientists said.
Unable to actually fly and partial to breeding in bat faeces, the fly is thought to live only in the dank, bat-filled cleft of an isolated rock in the Ukazi Hills. It also has non-functional wings that resemble miniature belt-straps, and tiny eyes.
The Mormotomyia hirsuta is the only member of its biological family and some fly experts believe that it will eventually prove to be the only family of fly completely restricted to Africa.
Scientists first came across the yellow-haired fly in 1933 and then again in 1948. Since then, at least half a dozen expeditions have visited a site between the towns of Thika and Garissa to find it again.
The Mormotomyia hirsuta looks more like a spider with its hairy legs, scientists said.
Unable to actually fly and partial to breeding in bat faeces, the fly is thought to live only in the dank, bat-filled cleft of an isolated rock in the Ukazi Hills. It also has non-functional wings that resemble miniature belt-straps, and tiny eyes.
The Mormotomyia hirsuta is the only member of its biological family and some fly experts believe that it will eventually prove to be the only family of fly completely restricted to Africa.
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