fly back to life

 

02-11-24 An unlikely tale of reincarnation.

common fruit fly
(note bashed in left eye)

So this was a few days ago sitting in front of the computer because it was grey as dishwater outside and there was nothing better to do than tell people on the internet where they were going wrong. One of these tiny fruit flies flew between me and the screen and I caught it in my left hand. Normally I'd clap both hands to dispose of these minor annoyances but on this occasion I opened my hand and found the insect lay dead, but otherwise unscathed on my palm.

Since it was seemed to be in good shape, other than having had the life squeezed out of it, I thought it might make a good subject for the macro lens. The thing about being retired is quite often you have the opportunity to explore things a person with a job does not make time for. I sometimes feel I should be doing something with a greater sum-of-the-parts than just examining dead insects closely, but equally there are a hundred worse hobbies and ways to spend the day. 😏 (smirking face emoji)

If I had been thinking properly I'd have set this up at the window where there was a slightly better light. Instead I just put the corpse under my table lamp which isn't very bright and thought the slightly diffuse flash would bring up the rear. I use three layers of printer paper in the semi-opaque clip on shield that goes over the flash to help diffuse the overly bright light of the flash. However while it helps to light up the shadows, the overall lack of a strong light left the photos a bit insipid. This is possibly the best reason to dick about with dead flies on grey days in November; when the real thing comes along I will be familiar with how to get the best results from test runs. Practice makes perfect etc. That is my excuse. I also intended to practise stacked shots. For this it is best to have a very stationary subject. However the subject had started moving.

At first it was exactly like a Tiswas inspired dance from the 70s where you lie on the floor wriggling. Called the dying fly. I thought it was just the twitching of a nearly dead thing but then it got up on its legs and hastily made off, leaving the white paper it was on and crossing a laminate with ladybirds on it. (The width of the printed ladybird leg is exactly 1mm at the bulge.) 

making a run for it

crossing more printed material
(a book on hoverflies I think - there's a theme here.)

I could also see that the eye I had bashed in (I was now feeling very guilty about my earlier treatment of this poor insect) had somehow mostly regained its proper shape. Legs that started off a bit limpy were now restored and working well, and it seemed to be repairing itself as it went. However the wings were maybe damaged as a fruit fly will either fold them on its back when walking about or use them to fly off and it did neither. 

these lines on my notebook are 8mm apart
making the fly just under 4mm head-to-tail

on the pages of a book

The fly was now remarkably well recovered from the hammering I gave it earlier and I felt it deserved no further trouble. It was a bit too cold to put it outside so I transfered it to the plants at the window where it walked off no doubt complaining about the treatment earlier. It is strange how you can form a bond with something as lowly as a fruit fly after spending a little time looking at it (and its injuries) through a macro lens. I have stopped clapping these little flies when I see them occasionally. I tried to catch one with a glass and postcard the other day but it got away. Perhaps for the best. 

according to this illustration off wikipedia (which I coloured)
the fly looks more like a female