When wasps, bees and flies continually clatter against the glass of my conservatory attempting a means of escape, are they following a strategy? (continued)
Alan Harding
London, UK
I think the previous answer to this question misses an important difference between flies, wasps and bees (4 July).
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Moving towards light has served flies well, but when confronted by glass 鈥� a relatively recent innovation 鈥� it can be fatally futile
In my experience, wasps and bees continually buzz around in more or less the same part of a window and are very easy to catch 鈥� for example by trapping them under an upturned glass, covering it with a piece of paper and releasing them through an open window.
With flies, on the other hand, this is almost impossible, as they tend to buzz around randomly. I don鈥檛 think this is a strategy for escaping (as was previously said, they have no concept of glass), but rather a strategy for not being eaten.
Bees and wasps have stings and stripy bodies to warn predators 鈥樷�漞at me at your peril鈥�. I think flies鈥� random flight paths have evolved to make it much harder for predators to catch and eat them.
Jonathan Wallace
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
It was suggested by your previous correspondent that flies and bees banging against the window to escape from a room aren鈥檛 following any specific strategy. This is probably incorrect.
If you observe a fly as it moves around a room, you won鈥檛 see it repeatedly flying against the wall in the way that it does against the glass of a window. This suggests that the fly (or bee) clearly 鈥渟ees鈥� the window as the way out.
Flying insects don鈥檛 reason their way out of the room in the way that we would, but are likely to have evolved a strategy of instinctively flying towards the light when inside a dark space.
In most circumstances, this simple strategy works well for them, but when confronted by glass 鈥� a very recent innovation in the evolutionary history of flies 鈥� the strategy becomes potentially fatally futile.
Garry Trethewey
Arkaroola, South Australia
Yes. The strategy is 鈥渉ead towards the light鈥�. That has worked for them for millions of years, sans windows. Now, it doesn鈥檛.
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