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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for August 26, 1999
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What kind of fly gives his mate a gift?
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Dance flies (family Empididae) do their courting on the wing. The
males of some species will catch an insect and wrap it in white
silk. The finished product resembles a shiny balloon, and can be
almost as large as the insect that made it.
The male then flies to a place where other males have gathered and
they form a swarm, dancing up and down in the air. Females soon show
up, attracted by the shiny gifts. Each male presents his balloon
gift to a female fly, who eats it. While she is eating, the male
mates with her.
In some species of dance flies, the male doesn't bother to catch an
insect. Instead, he creates a gift made of hundreds of empty silk
balloons. Although the gift is empty, females are still attracted.
Other dance flies steal food from spiders' webs.
More about all kinds of flies:
http://www.naturalpartners.org/InsectZoo/Students/diptera.html
More Cool Facts about flies:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/09/01.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/01/20.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/03/17.html
Today's Cool Word is balloon:
http://www.cool-word.com/archive/1999/08/26.html
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Copyright (c) 1999, The Learning Kingdom, Inc.
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