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 cleaning behavior
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| eloisemace |
Posted on 13-11-2007 15:03
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Member Location: Posts: 1 Joined: 12.11.07 |
I am writing a children's book and I need to know about cleaning behavior in hoverflies. I need to explain photographs of hoverflies cleaning wings and mouth parts. Can anyone tell me what cleaning behavior is about...its purpose and its result? |
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| Kahis |
Posted on 13-11-2007 15:35
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 Member Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1999 Joined: 02.09.04 |
The cleaning behaviour is unsurprisingly about personal hygiene  It's important even for flies. Even 'filth flies' hate being filty. Dirt hampers moverent, dull contact and air-flow senses and in worst case directly kills the fly. Many flies have chemical 'taste' sensors on their feet. Keeping these fresh and clean is important and flies can spend hours each days washing their hands
Kahis |
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| ChrisR |
Posted on 13-11-2007 15:40
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 Super Administrator Location: Reading, England Posts: 7703 Joined: 12.07.04 |
With hoverflies I am guessing but I'd say they are just cleaning dust & pollen off their wings and body to make them more streamlined. They are also covered with very fine hairs & bristles, many of which are sensory and help in flight - detecting the direction of air movement etc, so they probably want to make sure they are pointing in the right directions so that they work properly |
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| crex |
Posted on 13-11-2007 16:56
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 Member Location: Sweden Posts: 1996 Joined: 22.05.06 |
"Holloway (1976) noted that Eristalis uses its legs to collect pollen and regarded cleaning behavior in which pollen grains adhering to the body are combed to the mouthparts as an adaptation to pollen-feeding." [Krenn, Plant & Szucsich: Mouthparts of flower-visiting insects. 2004] |
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| Nikita Vikhrev |
Posted on 13-11-2007 17:41
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 Member Location: Moscow, Russia Posts: 9456 Joined: 24.05.05 |
Our eyes are small and covered by eyelids to protect its (in danger for eye or being asleep, when not used). Our eyes have cleaning mechanism ? tears. Still sometimes we use our hand as additional way of eye cleaning. And for some activities we still need protecting glass in addition to protection constructed by Nature. Eyes of flies many times larger than ours in compare with body size. It seems that for fly eyes relatively even much more important than for us. And neither eyelids nor tear-cleaning exist. And feeding on flowers with pollen (or even dung or carrion, though it isn?t Syrphidae speciality  ) requires perpetual cleaning.
Edited by Nikita Vikhrev on 13-11-2007 17:59 Nikita Vikhrev - Zool Museum of Moscow University |
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| jorgemotalmeida |
Posted on 15-11-2007 14:12
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 Member Location: Viseu - PORTUGAL Posts: 9296 Joined: 05.06.06 |
as you see, the flies are much more cleaner that usually people think.  Cleaning is important to keep the "tools" 100% free of "noise" and can receive signals from environment without distortions. |
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