Ephydra hians: The Scuba Diving Fly !

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Youtube clone if D.tube video above doesn't work:

The amazing fly you just saw in the video above is scientifically described as Ephydra hians and not surprisingly it's best known for it's amazing ability to practically be 100 % water proof! Commonly known as the alkali fly, the species occurs in the northwestern United States, Canada and Mexico. Some populations are also found in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington. The place with the highest number of these critters is Mono Lake at the Mono Basin in California. Actually, their common name (alkali fly) is linked to Mono Lake, as the lake is three times saltier than the ocean and almost as basic as amonia. The lake is so basic that no fish or other vertebrates survive in it!

Alkali Flies (credit)

These flies are so good at handling water they can even take a big dive (compared to their body size), touch the floor and walk on it! This is something they do many times in their short 4-5 days life, to forage and lay eggs.  The larvae are actually born underwater and stay there feeding on algae and bacteria and stay there until they mature into adults..

Their weird ability to go where no other insect goes (except maybe diving bell spiders) is something that has always captivated researchers and simple folks alike. Here's what American writer Mark Twain  wrote in his travel memoir over a century ago:

 "You can hold them under water as long as you please--they do not mind it--they are only proud of it. When you let them go, they pop up to the surface as dry as a patent office report, and walk off as unconcernedly as if they had been educated especially with a view to affording instructive entertainment to man in that particular way." 

What is more interesting about these flies is that when they come out of the water it appears as if they are completely dry. It's almost as if they have some kind of force field keeping the water away from. So how can they do it? Well, if we exclude the possibility of them having Star Trek technology and magic the only other explanation is that for some reason they are highly hydrophobic. 

Well, for starters all insects are more or less hydrophobic although not to the degree of Ephydra hians. This is what allows them to deal with rain and dew. This is usually done with the help of short bristly hairs that cover their body and repels water. But it's one thing to repel water when you slightly come in contact with it and another when you are underwater, with water surrounding all of your body!

What is even more interesting is that the waters of the Mono Lake are "wetter" than regular lakes. Research has shown that the surface of that lake has athin layer of negatively charged carbonate ions that breaks the water resistance of insects much more effectively than normal water. If we place a "regular" fly in that water, the ions are attracted to the positive charges on the fly's skin and the water is pulled between the protective hairs making the fly...wet in an instant. But obviously that's not the case for Ephydra hians flies.

Up until recently we had no idea how these flies could achieve this feat. But a recent study [3] by researchers from Caltech revealed that it is thanks to a phenomenon called superhydrophobicity:

 Using a combination of high-speed video and micro-force measurements in which they plunged flies into a variety of different chemical solutions, van Breugel and Dickinson found that the Mono Lake fly creates a protective bubble of air around its body when crawling into the lakewater. This bubble is a result of an extreme water-repelling phenomenon called superhydrophobicity. The flies are able to do this, the researchers discovered, because they are hairier than the average fly and coat their bodies and hairs with waxes that are particularly effective at repelling the carbonate-rich water. They also have large claws on their feet, which allow them to crawl on underwater rocks while resisting the naturally buoyant force of the bubble. Remarkably, the bubble does not encase the fly's eyes, allowing the fly to see underwater without the bubble's distorting effect.  [source]

So this is pretty much how these flies can take a dive,  crawl underwater to forage and lay eggs and emerge completely dry. 

The researchers even tested other closely related flies to see how they would do.. Let's just say things didn't end up well for them...

Here's what  Michael Dickinson commented about their reseach:

 "It's not that Mono Lake flies have evolved a new and unique way of remaining hydrophobic--it's that they've amplified the normal tools that most insects use. It's just a killer gig. There's nothing underwater to eat you and you have all the food you want. You've just got to dive in perhaps the most difficult water in which to stay dry on the planet. They figured it out, and so get to enjoy an extremely unique life history. It's amazing how the evolution of such small-scale physical and chemical changes can allow an animal to occupy an entirely new ecological niche." [source]

So, I think I have pretty much covered the basics about this interesting little guy, like always feel free to check the references down below if you want to learn more! See ya in the next post!

References & Further Reading

• Video on the top is free to use, source
• The strange case of the scuba-diving fly
• Superhydrophobic diving flies (Ephydra hians) and the hypersaline waters of Mono Lake
• Wikipedia

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• 3 Creepy Critters I Discovered This Week + Baby Bat Burritos
• Clathrus archeri: Weird Alien-Like Eggs Hatch Into Weird Octopus Thing
• The Horseshoe Crab Named After Darth Vader
• Lobster with Pepsi Tattoo Fished In Canada !

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