KENYA: Scientists baffled by re-discovered "Terrible Hairy Fly"

Record ID: 361735

  • Title: KENYA: Scientists baffled by re-discovered "Terrible Hairy Fly"
  • Date: 10th December 2010
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 8, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TERRIBLE HAIRY FLY IN RECEPTACLE DR ROBERT COPELAND, ICIPE SCIENTIST LOOKING THROUGH MICROSCOPE INSECT SPECIMEN UNDER MICROSCOPE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICIPE SCIENTIST, DOCTOR ROBERT COPELAND SAYING: ''What makes the species interesting is that even though it's a fly or a member of the Diptera, it has no function
  • Embargoed: 25th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA34JUV0JCBONS0FSHKBLJYQLIQ
  • Story Text: Scientists in Kenya have rediscovered one of the world's rarest and oddest-looking flies after a long hunt. The insect, dubbed the "terrible hairy fly" for it's hirsute appearance, is also wingless and has legs that look more like the legs of a spider than a fly.
    The yellow-haired fly - Mormotomyia hirsuta - was first discovered in 1933 and then again in 1948. Since then, at least half a dozen expeditions have visited a site between the towns of Thika and Garissa to find it again, without success.
    But recently, an expedition led by the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), struck entomological gold. Insect specialists Dr Robert Copeland and Dr Ashley Kirk-Spriggs spotted the centimeter long insect on a single 20-metre high rock.
    ''What makes the species interesting is that even though it's a fly or a member of the Diptera, it has no functional wings, it has little strap-like appendages where its wings ought to be. It has very long legs which make it look very spider-like and is covered with hairs that also add to its spider-like appearance,'' said Dr Copeland.
    Unable to fly and partial to breeding in bat faeces, the fly is thought to live only in the dank, bat-filled cleft of an isolated rock in the Ukazi Hills. It also has non-functional wings that resemble miniature belt-straps, and tiny eyes.
    Copeland says the fly's physical appearance has left scientists bamboozled about where exactly it belongs in the entire order of Diptera, or "true flies".
    ''Specimens have been distributed around the world and taxonomists, the people that work on describing insects and comparing insects or anything else for that matter have looked at this curious creature and have unable to put it comfortably, put it comfortably associated with any of the known families of flies. So over the time it has sort of gotten this distinction of being an anomaly kind of in the insect world, and one that can't comfortably be placed in the phylogeny of flies, of true flies. So its evolutionary importance is not known', said Copeland.
    Copeland and his team had set off initially on the expedition with no expectations of finding the elusive fly. But some 60 years after it was last spotted, the scientists rejoiced at the re-discovery.
    ''We were pretty lucky. I'll tell you honestly we didn't expect to find it, it was a real Eureka moment for the whole bunch of us, it was pretty crazy. But it was really worth it, it was the time of my life, in terms of entomology,'' said Copeland.
    The Mormotomyia hirsuta is the only member of its biological family and some fly experts reckon the fly will eventually prove to be the only family of fly completely restricted to Africa and possibly the bat-infested cave where it was found.
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