‘Absolute magic’: Netizens in awe of fruit flies that have ant-like designs on their wings

The G-tridens fruit flies have evolved to have designs that mimic ants on their wings to confuse and scare predators.

Even small creatures like fruit flies have evolved on the principle of natural selection to protect themselves from predators. Stunning photos that show how the wing designs of G-tridens fruit flies have evolved to mimic ants are going viral on Twitter.

Dr Brigitte Howarth, a fly specialist at Dubai’s Zayed University, is credited with first discovering the G-tridens in the UAE in 2012. In conversation with The National, an English daily based in Abu Dhabi, Dr Howarth explained the reasoning behind this evolutionary wing design and said that when the fruit fly is threatened, it is able to camouflage its body by blending into its surroundings. At the same time, it flashes its wings to give the appearance of ants moving. This confuses and scares predators and allows the fruit fly to fly to safety.

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On Sunday, a popular Twitter account Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) shared zoomed-in photos of the G-tridens fruit flies that showed how the transparent wings of the fruit flies give an illusion that an ant is trapped within them.

Look at the wings of these flies,

from the genus Goniurellia. Each wing has a detailed image of an ant, when the wings move, the ants appear to walk

Most of its predators would want to avoid a confrontation with the stings of ants

📸1) mpergil 📸2) Dr Brigitte Howarth pic.twitter.com/zTef1qhsjk

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) March 24, 2023

These pictures gathered over 10,000 likes since they were posted. Commenting on it, a Twitter user wrote: “It’s really hard to comprehend how insects such as this one have evolved into what they are today…” Another person remarked, “Evolution always baffled me. like what? Some protein just suddenly decided to LITERALLY CODED THEMSELVES to make their wing look like ant? Insane.”

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