The Bubble Blower
As it is one year to the day since I put up my first photo, I blew a bubble in celebration!! :^))
This is the second of these tiny flies that I have caught blowing a bubble - I put one up last year which I will link below, but this is a much clearer photo and additionally I upscaled it x2 so that you can see really clearly, it did a pretty good job - worth a double click.
It is a very small fly indeed, not like a house fly and I had no idea he was blowing the bubble, I just took several photos and this was the only one in proper focus. Last time someone suggested it was perspiration, but that doesn't convince me, I rather think it has more to do with feeding and digestion. Just before moving to the petal he was mooching around the centre of the flower which is a small dahlia. I can't say if that was the same with the other one, which was on a Crane's-bill Geranium but I suspect it was.
Any suggestions as to the purpose - beyond celebratory, please add a comment.
A quick search just now and a science mag says it is to cool them down - so I guess *the science* is in then! I'm still not convinced - there, that should set the science police on me, what a rebel I am! Gosh! Who'd have thunk we can think for ourselves? I still think something to do with aiding digestion.
.....Further research diptera.info proposes perspiration or food digestion. He or she was definitely feeding just prior so I still plump for some kind of oxidization aid to digestion. If you look closely there appears to be some sort of debris / food / matter in the bubble. Also it seems they do not secrete the bubble, they pull it back in which doesn't seem to fit with perspiration.
The other photo is here -
www.flickr.com/photos/magoo7/52523052146/in/dateposted-pu...
The Bubble Blower
As it is one year to the day since I put up my first photo, I blew a bubble in celebration!! :^))
This is the second of these tiny flies that I have caught blowing a bubble - I put one up last year which I will link below, but this is a much clearer photo and additionally I upscaled it x2 so that you can see really clearly, it did a pretty good job - worth a double click.
It is a very small fly indeed, not like a house fly and I had no idea he was blowing the bubble, I just took several photos and this was the only one in proper focus. Last time someone suggested it was perspiration, but that doesn't convince me, I rather think it has more to do with feeding and digestion. Just before moving to the petal he was mooching around the centre of the flower which is a small dahlia. I can't say if that was the same with the other one, which was on a Crane's-bill Geranium but I suspect it was.
Any suggestions as to the purpose - beyond celebratory, please add a comment.
A quick search just now and a science mag says it is to cool them down - so I guess *the science* is in then! I'm still not convinced - there, that should set the science police on me, what a rebel I am! Gosh! Who'd have thunk we can think for ourselves? I still think something to do with aiding digestion.
.....Further research diptera.info proposes perspiration or food digestion. He or she was definitely feeding just prior so I still plump for some kind of oxidization aid to digestion. If you look closely there appears to be some sort of debris / food / matter in the bubble. Also it seems they do not secrete the bubble, they pull it back in which doesn't seem to fit with perspiration.
The other photo is here -
www.flickr.com/photos/magoo7/52523052146/in/dateposted-pu...