Must have been intelligently designed.

[General Zod]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48047061/ns ... _H9FbWe47w

A new fly discovered in Thailand is the world's smallest. It is five times smaller than a fruit fly and tinier than a grain of salt (0.4 millimeters) in length — half the size of the smallest "no see-ums." It probably also feeds on tiny ants, likely decapitating them and using their head casings as its home.
"It's so small you can barely see it with the naked eye on a microscope slide. It's smaller than a flake of pepper," said Brian Brown, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who identified the fly as a new species. "The housefly looks like a Godzilla fly beside it."
The tiny finding is detailed in the July 2012 issue of the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

Thailand's tiny fly
The type specimen, a female, was picked up by the Thailand Inventory Group for Entomological Research in Kaeng Krachan National Park. The fly is the first of its kind discovered in Asia. [ Microscopic Monsters: Gallery of Amazing Bugs ]
It has smoky gray wings and the female they discovered has an egg-depositing organ that is pointed to make it easy to lay eggs inside another insect, as a parasitic fly would. While it's not the smallest insect (that title belongs a species of fairy wasp, coming in at 0.14 millimeters in length, about the size of a human egg cell), it is the world's smallest fly.
"When you get really small like that, the environment changes," Brown said. "The viscosity of air starts to become a problem and wind currents are major events. It's amazing how small something can be and still have all of its organs. This is a new frontier, and publishing this tiny fly is basically a challenge to other people to find something smaller," he said.
Feeding on ants
The researchers named the new fly Euryplatea nanaknihali. It comes from a group of 4,000 hump-backed flies called phorid flies. One genus of the fly, Pseudacteon, is known for its anti-ant behaviors, which include decapitation. They usually range from 0.04 inches to 0.12 inches (1 millimeter to 3 millimeters) in length, so they can only prey on larger ants.
The flies lay their eggs in the body of the ant; the eggs develop and migrate to the ant's head where they feed on the huge muscles used to open and close the ant's mouthparts. They eventually devour the ant's brain as well, causing it to wander aimlessly for two weeks. The head then falls off after the fly larva dissolve the membrane that keeps it attached.
The fly then takes up residence in the decapitated ant head for another two weeks, before hatching out as a full-grown adult. In this case, researchers think the fly parasitizes tiny acrobat ants, whose heads are about as large as the fly itself and grow to about 0.16 inches (4 millimeters) long.
They haven't been able to see this in action, but think it's likely in the newfound fly since the fly's closest relative decapitates ants in Equatorial Guinea.

Isn't mother nature a thing of beauty?

[Pendleton]

I will always be in awe at the ingenuity and downright ghoulishness of nature.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Yes. Mother nature is a thing of Beauty. Of course, I am a bit like that guy in Alien Resurrection who thought the Alien Hybrid was a "Beautiful Beautiful Butterfly"

Speaking of which

Must have been intelligently designed.

Yes, if H.R. Giger is the second coming of christ.

[Valten1992]

Beautiful or not, won't stop me swatting it.......if I could see it....

[PainRack]

The last bit about ants freaked me out a bit..... this involuntary thought about what if it got into my brain just leaped out from the pages and sent shivers down my spine:D


Way cool:D

[Ziggy Stardust]

Of course, I am a bit like that guy in Alien Resurrection who thought the Alien Hybrid was a "Beautiful Beautiful Butterfly"

I have an entomologist friend (who works with Thomas Seeley on social interaction and intelligence in honeybees, since I know if there is anyone here who would be interested in this it is AD) that quotes the line constantly. It's great.

Anyway, that really is an amazing discovery. How the hell did they find it? Even cooler is that it is not interesting just because it is small, but because of its unusual life cycle. (I mean, sometimes when they discover new insect species, the press release is little more than, "Hey! This fly is exactly like this other species, but GREEN this time!")

[Alyrium Denryle]

I have an entomologist friend (who works with Thomas Seeley on social interaction and intelligence in honeybees, since I know if there is anyone here who would be interested in this it is AD) that quotes the line constantly. It's great.

My work as of late has shifted over to studying the foraging behavior of dragonfly nymphs...

This was an image, but it is way the fuck huge

They are basically the other half of the Xenomorph equation. They are what give us the little mouth (from the projectile stabbing/grabbing labium) and the stabby tail. The other half being of course, parasitoid wasps(which I played with during undergrad research. Yes, I am as much entomologist as herpetologist. Really, I think I just love the things that make other people scream in horror).



But yeah. I have started calling my experimental subjects My Little Xenomorphs and do react with the "Oh what a beautiful beautiful butterfly" line when they metamorphose into dragonflies.

Anyway, back to these little guys. What is interesting to me is not that they are tiny. That part is easy. I should think it was discovered while someone was studying the ants they decapitate. Preserve the ant, you end up preserving the parasite. What is interesting to me is that they are parasitoid dipterans. Parasitoid hymenopterans (wasps) are a dime a dozen. In fact... more like a dime per thousand different species. More beetles have been described, but the reality is, parasitoid wasps are often way the fuck tiny, and are species specific. There are a few hundred thousand described beetle species. However, there is probably a parasitoid wasp that specifically preys on every other species of insects, and many arachnids...including other parasitoid wasps. There are species that actually inject their eggs into the larvae of another species of parasitoid wasps--while it itself is inside the body of a beetle, catterpillar or whathaveyou. So, there are millions of species. We have just not found, let alone described, all of them.

[Ziggy Stardust]

But yeah. I have started calling my experimental subjects My Little Xenomorphs and do react with the "Oh what a beautiful beautiful butterfly" line when they metamorphose into dragonflies.

There are species that actually inject their eggs into the larvae of another species of parasitoid wasps--while it itself is inside the body of a beetle, catterpillar or whathaveyou. So, there are millions of species. We have just not found, let alone described, all of them.

Indeed. There must be large numbers of species that live right under our noses that nobody has thought to be looking for, yet. I mean, you expect to find new species in the jungles of South America or south-east Asia, for example, but when people look hard enough they discover twenty new species in central Europe. (I wish I could find more information on that article, by the way, but my Google-fu is failing me).

[Lord Baal]

I'm the only one creep at the idea of serving as a fly eggs nursery and not even realizing it? Here in South America we have some nasty flys that put their larvae into your skin and it gets really nasty, like a monstrous pimple, only with a squirming larva inside of it. But is really notorious and easy to spot and relatively easy to get rid off... but this... this flys could have a freaking colony in your body and you would not notices.... or perhaps I'm being paranoid again? There's a entomologist in the house?

[Alyrium Denryle]

I'm the only one creep at the idea of serving as a fly eggs nursery and not even realizing it? Here in South America we have some nasty flys that put their larvae into your skin and it gets really nasty, like a monstrous pimple, only with a squirming larva inside of it. But is really notorious and easy to spot and relatively easy to get rid off... but this... this flys could have a freaking colony in your body and you would not notices.... or perhaps I'm being paranoid again? There's a entomologist in the house?

Hello (In addition to herpetology, I also work with insects)

You are being paranoids. These guys parasitize ants.

That said, Bot Flies (the kind you described) are fucking awesome! It is nasty, and gross, but also harmless. They secrete antimicrobial compounds into their little cavity so even after they leave on their own in a few weeks, you do not get an infection. Biologists who get them while in the tropics often name them, and consider them a little internal-pet while the little guy grows up.

[PainRack]

I'm the only one creep at the idea of serving as a fly eggs nursery and not even realizing it? Here in South America we have some nasty flys that put their larvae into your skin and it gets really nasty, like a monstrous pimple, only with a squirming larva inside of it. But is really notorious and easy to spot and relatively easy to get rid off... but this... this flys could have a freaking colony in your body and you would not notices.... or perhaps I'm being paranoid again? There's a entomologist in the house?

Hello (In addition to herpetology, I also work with insects)

You are being paranoids. These guys parasitize ants.

That said, Bot Flies (the kind you described) are fucking awesome! It is nasty, and gross, but also harmless. They secrete antimicrobial compounds into their little cavity so even after they leave on their own in a few weeks, you do not get an infection. Biologists who get them while in the tropics often name them, and consider them a little internal-pet while the little guy grows up.

Ok. There's no way in hell I'm going to be able to finish my lasgana now.....


Damn it, I worked and ate through oceans of shit, ate pork floss and BBQ pork effortlessly after smelling burnt human flesh,my stomach survived watching a pulsating mass of brains, or a rotten wound, a breast cancer wound, or my most horrorific experience, watching a cardiac thoraic surgical patient heart pump through the infected part of his chest cavity wound. Yet, your words and the picture made me lose my appetite.

Kudos Alyrium Denryle.

[Zixinus]

You are being paranoids. These guys parasitize ants.

By this, he means that the flies on you would die. Parasites do not thrive if placed on a host that they are not evolved to live off of. Besides, there is a difference between chewing your way to a fly's brain and chewing through the human skull (or even on human skin, I would guess that this fly would not be able to penetrate your skin).

[Lord Baal]

That's reassuring... thanks.

[Purple]

I'm the only one creep at the idea of serving as a fly eggs nursery and not even realizing it? Here in South America we have some nasty flys that put their larvae into your skin and it gets really nasty, like a monstrous pimple, only with a squirming larva inside of it. But is really notorious and easy to spot and relatively easy to get rid off... but this... this flys could have a freaking colony in your body and you would not notices.... or perhaps I'm being paranoid again? There's a entomologist in the house?

Hello (In addition to herpetology, I also work with insects)

You are being paranoids. These guys parasitize ants.

That said, Bot Flies (the kind you described) are fucking awesome! It is nasty, and gross, but also harmless. They secrete antimicrobial compounds into their little cavity so even after they leave on their own in a few weeks, you do not get an infection. Biologists who get them while in the tropics often name them, and consider them a little internal-pet while the little guy grows up.

Does it not hurt thou? I can't imagine something chewing on your skin would be painless.

[Alyrium Denryle]

No. Not when it goes in, it does not hurt because they are tiny.

Later... eh. If you cut them off from air or pester them, they will burrow deeper which might hurt.

[Darth Yoshi]

Wait, so the response to being cut off from air is to go deeper? As in, further away from air? That's weird.

[Purple]

Maybe it figures that it can munch its way out the other side?

[InnerBrat]

Wait, so the response to being cut off from air is to go deeper? As in, further away from air? That's weird.

I imagine for hibernation purposes.

[Lord Baal]

Well the people I have seen with that says it fucking hurts like hell. It's like a huge pimple, but the ones that get inflated and red and hurts... well, that. And taking them out is even worst. As I understand they have this little claws at their sides that attach to your flesh.

My gf told me that when she was a kid she go one right below the right buttock, in her leg. She tells me that she wasn't unable to sit properly during and a few days after the thing was pulled out out of pain.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Wait, so the response to being cut off from air is to go deeper? As in, further away from air? That's weird.

Kinda depends on the situation. For example, if you shower, water floods its little cavity and tries to escape and put its little snorkel up somewhere else. If you put a steak over your arm and cut off its air supply, it will burrow UP through into the steak and there you have it successfully removed (and risk wonderful little infections)

[Zixinus]

No. Not when it goes in, it does not hurt because they are tiny.

Later... eh. If you cut them off from air or pester them, they will burrow deeper which might hurt.

Well, thanks for completely voiding any measure of reassurance I tried to convey and now creeping ME out

[Sea Skimmer]

Don't worry, the bot fly really isn't that bad. What is bad is the guinea worm which can burrow significant distances through the human body, like all the way from the gut to the foot while causing feverish disease. It can grow up to several feet long inside of you for over year, before breaking through the skin to release its larva into water supplies. Best thing is no treatment exists, except to physically pull out the worm very slowly, normally by progressively wrapping it around a stick, which can take days or weeks to accomplish.

Avoiding this worm is easy though, don't drink unpurified water in Central Africa. Also avoid central Africa completely.

[Gil Hamilton]

Don't worry, the bot fly really isn't that bad. What is bad is the guinea worm which can burrow significant distances through the human body, like all the way from the gut to the foot while causing feverish disease. It can grow up to several feet long inside of you for over year, before breaking through the skin to release its larva into water supplies. Best thing is no treatment exists, except to physically pull out the worm very slowly, normally by progressively wrapping it around a stick, which can take days or weeks to accomplish.

Avoiding this worm is easy though, don't drink unpurified water in Central Africa. Also avoid central Africa completely.

On the positive side, the guinea worm is one of those parasites where education of locals has been dramatically effective in eradicating it. Since their life cycle REQUIRES a host (so no reservoirs of them exist), getting Africans to use filters or boil water has been dramatically effective in reducing infections and once an area is infection free, it tends to stay that way for a while. The species may well be extinct in 10 years, barring catastrophe that halts eradication efforts. The guinea worm extermination has been a pretty big win for the World Health Organization.

[Dass.Kapital]

On the positive side, the guinea worm is one of those parasites where education of locals has been dramatically effective in eradicating it. Since their life cycle REQUIRES a host (so no reservoirs of them exist), getting Africans to use filters or boil water has been dramatically effective in reducing infections and once an area is infection free, it tends to stay that way for a while. The species may well be extinct in 10 years, barring catastrophe that halts eradication efforts. The guinea worm extermination has been a pretty big win for the World Health Organization.

And some one will keep some sample Guinea worms in a lab some where, like the Small Pox virus.

Where the surviving worms will wait, mutating quietly within their restraining containers/prisons and lurk forgotten by the world at large. Eventually the twisted malevolent descendants, after planing their revenge, will break out (Usually with the aid of some unwitting peon) unleash DOOM upon us ALL!.

Joke

[Ziggy Stardust]

Well the people I have seen with that says it fucking hurts like hell. It's like a huge pimple, but the ones that get inflated and red and hurts... well, that. And taking them out is even worst. As I understand they have this little claws at their sides that attach to your flesh.

My gf told me that when she was a kid she go one right below the right buttock, in her leg. She tells me that she wasn't unable to sit properly during and a few days after the thing was pulled out out of pain.

I have been attacked, bitten, and burrowed in by a number of creepy crawlies (that's what happens when you do field work in Africa). In my experience, the little parasites don't cause a lot of pain. The only sensation I got from worm larvae growing in my finger was a lot of itchiness. After all, a successful parasite is one that the host doesn't know is even there ... in a lot of cases, if it is causing pain, it is just a sting or a bite (probably in self defense because you scared it). The REALLY painful ones are the cattle flies and such.