Speaker 1: Oh hey, it's that lady that works at the post
Speaker 1: office in your old neighborhood who asks where you've been. Ali,
Speaker 1: Ward and listen. I'm looking at you, and I see you.
Speaker 1: Your arms are folded, you're glaring. You're saying, make me
Speaker 1: like flies, bitch, and maybe I will. But we have
Speaker 1: our work cut out for us on this one. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. So it's good. I've enlisted one of
Speaker 1: the world's most charming and visible dipterologists. He's done field
Speaker 1: work on several continents. He's named more species than you
Speaker 1: can literally shake a flyswater at, and he lives and
Speaker 1: breathes flies metaphorically but also probably literally on accidents sometimes.
Speaker 1: He studied biotech for undergrad and then got a PhD
Speaker 1: in insect systematics and evolution, and is now doing a
Speaker 1: postdoc fellowship at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's
Speaker 1: National Insect Collection, researching the evolution and classification of soldier flies,
Speaker 1: which are stout, little outside flies named after warriors because
Speaker 1: of spikes on their necks, though Workipedia notes that they
Speaker 1: are quote often rather inactive flies. So soldier flies, you're
Speaker 1: my head of flies. So this Dipterologist is also a
Speaker 1: Tedex speaker at a sycommer who's done a bunch of
Speaker 1: TV and radio appearances and just wrote his first book,
Speaker 1: Eyes on Flies for Kids. It's due out in September,
Speaker 1: and we're going to get to him in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But first you thank you everyone at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash Ologies for supporting the show for a dollar a
Speaker 1: month or more that allows you to submit questions that
Speaker 1: I could read with my mouth hopefully correctly. And thanks
Speaker 1: to everyone rating and reviewing and subscribing. I read all
Speaker 1: your reviews because they matter to me, and I pick
Speaker 1: one each week to read, and this week's is from
Speaker 1: Emily who Loves Trees, who wrote one time I was
Speaker 1: having a really bad day and I was crying in
Speaker 1: my car who hasn't been there and decided to listen
Speaker 1: to Ologies, and the newest episode was happiness, exactly what
Speaker 1: I needed always is. By the way, this is the
Speaker 1: first review I've left on any podcast ever. You deserve it.
Speaker 1: Emily who Loves Trees, happy to hand you that travel
Speaker 1: pack of Kleenex from the depths of my backpack. Okay,
Speaker 1: rub your tiny hands to get there and start to
Speaker 1: barf with Hunger for info on Golden Rumps, huge Family, Iranians,
Speaker 1: maggots and crime, ancient weightlifting, rainbow, exoskeletons, species naming, sexy, Dancing,
Speaker 1: delicious filth Jeff Goldblum, How to keep flies out of
Speaker 1: your domicile, but why you should love them more with
Speaker 1: the biggest cheerleader for the tiniest and most maligned creatures.
Speaker 1: Dipterologist doctor Brian Lazard.
Speaker 2: I'm doctor Brian Lasade aka brought the fly Guy, and
Speaker 2: I'm hate him.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, bry the fly Guy, how
Speaker 1: long have you been using that name? Because it's perfect.
Speaker 2: I think I started when I am launched my Twitter
Speaker 2: account like in twenty thirteen, So it's sillly been ten
Speaker 2: years since I've been using.
Speaker 1: The fly Guy. Okay. Now, I was going to explain
Speaker 1: this in the intro, but I decided I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: let you do it. You are a dipterologist, correct.
Speaker 2: Yes, correct, I am a dipterologist.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I'm going to make you explain why you're
Speaker 1: a dipterrologist from at least a taxonomic viewpoint. What is
Speaker 1: the etymology of Diptera?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Diptera is the scientific term for flies, obviously,
Speaker 2: and it's Latin for die meaning too and terror meaning wings.
Speaker 2: And that's how you can tell flies apart from most
Speaker 2: of the insects, is that they only have two wings.
Speaker 2: So that's why we call them diptera.
Speaker 1: But does it ever vex you because you're a dipterrologist,
Speaker 1: you study flies, you buy the fly guy. But there
Speaker 1: must be so many different kinds of flies. How can
Speaker 1: they all be grouped together just because they have two wings?
Speaker 1: What's up with that?
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. There's one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: thousand spaces of flies something all over the world.
Speaker 1: Are you serious?
Speaker 2: Yes, so many, and they're the ones we only know
Speaker 2: about now. It's funny because when people think about flies,
Speaker 2: they think of the tiny little bushfly or a march
Speaker 2: flyer that you know annoys you or ruins the picnic
Speaker 2: shoot fly far but there are so many spaces out there.
Speaker 2: They're actually fifteen times more fly species than bird species,
Speaker 2: just to put it in perspective, and they're everywhere. They're
Speaker 2: on every continent including Antarctica. How mind blowing is that?
Speaker 1: Very Also, because you think you'd go to an Oarctica
Speaker 1: and you'd be like, ah, the flies can't find me here,
Speaker 1: and one pops up from a snoke and be like stop, bitch,
Speaker 1: and you're like what, what, how how did you get here?
Speaker 1: What are they eating in Anarctica?
Speaker 2: Yes, so the largest full time animal living on Antarctica
Speaker 2: is actually a fly. It's the Antarctic midge fly. It's
Speaker 2: so tiny as well, you wouldn't even see it. But
Speaker 2: it's actually adapted to survive the freezing temperatures because they
Speaker 2: actually freeze the larvae and they can stay frozen for
Speaker 2: nine months of the year to wait for it to
Speaker 2: get really cold. They go into hibernation, and then when
Speaker 2: it starts warming up, that's when they start reactivating and
Speaker 2: turning into adults so they can breed have children, and
Speaker 2: the cycle continues. And regarding what they eat, I think
Speaker 2: they eat a lot of algae and moss down there,
Speaker 2: because I think that's the only thing they can eat.
Speaker 1: And what eats a flightless anarctic midge fly? You ask nothing, nothing,
Speaker 1: Nothing else can go as hard as living as a
Speaker 1: baby under the ice for two years, desiccating seventy percent
Speaker 1: of your body's water as an anti freeze strategy and
Speaker 1: being the only native, fully terrestrial animal on the continent
Speaker 1: of Antarctica. Polar bears, you scream at me in your
Speaker 1: car alone. If you heard the Risenology episodes, you would
Speaker 1: know polar bears don't live in the Antarctic and that
Speaker 1: ant Arctic literally means no bears here Antarctic, although that
Speaker 1: icy continent should be called four millimeters wingless flies that
Speaker 1: are more hardcore than bears and only emerge the adults
Speaker 1: ten days of their lives just to have an orgy
Speaker 1: and ice their babies. That is what Antarctica should be
Speaker 1: called thanks to their midges. Now, what about other flies?
Speaker 1: And why do flies only have two wings? What happened
Speaker 1: to the other set? Like Hymenoptera has four, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and butterflies have four. And what's really cool about
Speaker 2: flies is they got smart millions of years ago and
Speaker 2: they're like, you know what, we don't need this second
Speaker 2: pair of wings. It's holding us back. So what they
Speaker 2: did is they decided to reduce them so cute. They
Speaker 2: decided they didn't need this second pair of wings. It
Speaker 2: was holding them back, so they ditch them. They actually evolved,
Speaker 2: they'll de evolved. The second pair of wings into these
Speaker 2: tiny little hole tears which are like lollipop knobs hall terrors.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I needed to know what this word meant,
Speaker 1: so I looked it up for us. And those armpit
Speaker 1: lollipop navorl jobbers get their name from ancient Greek gym
Speaker 1: rats because hall terrors were weights made out of big
Speaker 1: ass rocks, and long jumpers would hold them and swing
Speaker 1: them forward to gain momentum and a few centimeters on
Speaker 1: their long jumps. Also very inspiring that if you need
Speaker 1: a weight set, you can just carve a handle in
Speaker 1: a rock and call it a day and a whole terror.
Speaker 2: And how they work are like little counterbalances, so they
Speaker 2: can zip and fly around in the air, and they
Speaker 2: can dart and change direction and angle so quickly because
Speaker 2: of these counterbalances. So they're really clever, speedy, and just amazing.
Speaker 2: How evolution just you know, does its magic.
Speaker 1: And are those little knobby jobbers are those considered wings
Speaker 1: but just stubby wings, or are those completely evolved into
Speaker 1: a totally separate structure.
Speaker 2: They've evolved into a completely separate structure. So they've still
Speaker 2: got the base, which is called a stem, and then
Speaker 2: they've got the little lollipop like knob at the end,
Speaker 2: and that's what they kind of flick around to change
Speaker 2: the momentum in which direction they're.
Speaker 1: Flying, kind of like a Greek long jumper, using physics
Speaker 1: to carry themselves forward. So nah, you love flies now? No, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, almost, So.
Speaker 2: It's quite remarkable. It's so simple and beautiful. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just that's pretty much what gives flies the morphological uniqueness,
Speaker 2: because there's always some exceptions too. So one of the
Speaker 2: flies that I studied down here in the alpine zone
Speaker 2: of Australia are the Souldi fly, and there's one species,
Speaker 2: Boreotes subulatis, that is actually wingless. The female doesn't have
Speaker 2: a wings, so technically can you call it a fly?
Speaker 2: We still do.
Speaker 1: That is, even though she does not fly, she is
Speaker 1: a fly.
Speaker 2: She is a fly. And what's really cool is she's
Speaker 2: reduced her wings. We're not sure why she lost them,
Speaker 2: but she crawls up blades of grass and tree trunks
Speaker 2: looking for her male mates because the males actually kept
Speaker 2: their wings. So the males fly to the females and
Speaker 2: then they retproduce and then lay their eggs in the
Speaker 2: leaf litter around. Of course, you've watched the movie Alien
Speaker 2: with the xenomorph queens.
Speaker 1: I have, yes, I have chilled, chilling.
Speaker 2: You know how the queen has this huge abdomen that
Speaker 2: is absolutely built for pumping out eggs.
Speaker 1: Yes, delicious, yep.
Speaker 2: This wingless souldier fly is the xenomorph of the insect world.
Speaker 2: Her abdomen is about three or four times the size
Speaker 2: of her thorax and she can pump out hundreds of eggs.
Speaker 2: So she's really born to breed and ensure the success
Speaker 2: of her species by pumping out as many vibe eggs
Speaker 2: as she can.
Speaker 1: So many siblings, so many, but a large family, she's
Speaker 1: like pumping them out. Okay, So I googled up the
Speaker 1: soldier fly and it looks kind of like a ladybug larvae.
Speaker 1: It's dark with a pointy segmented bud and according to
Speaker 1: the website for the Australian Museum, due to its lack
Speaker 1: of wings quote, the female of this species of fly
Speaker 1: is often referred to as a walk ouch dude, brutal.
Speaker 1: Can you run me through what types of flies there are?
Speaker 1: I understand there's a bozillion, but what is a fly
Speaker 1: like mosquito? Is that a fly crane fly. Is that
Speaker 1: a fly? We got house flies, we got midges, like
Speaker 1: when we see something. I'm sure there's so many things
Speaker 1: that are flies that we don't realize are flies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and mosquitoes. They are definitely a type of fly
Speaker 2: because they only have two wings as well, and many
Speaker 2: people think, you know, mosquitoes aren't flies, they're annoying, they're horrible.
Speaker 2: Fun fact, some mosquitoes are actually vegetarian and we'll just
Speaker 2: drink connected from flowers all day and pollinate. So even
Speaker 2: the pesky mosquito has a role in the ecosystem.
Speaker 1: Good for them. What are some other things that we
Speaker 1: don't realize, like our flies? Like what is it even encompass?
Speaker 1: And how do you, as a dipterologist come to be one?
Speaker 1: What was your entry point? What was your entry species?
Speaker 2: Oh? Good question. I had no idea about flies until
Speaker 2: I started university. I used to hate them. I thought
Speaker 2: were march fliers were the bane of my existence going hiking. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I thought blowflies were super annoying. Wished them away, and
Speaker 2: then I did a Bachelor by technology, actually because I
Speaker 2: liked DNA and I thought, you know, I'm going to
Speaker 2: save the world by stopping companies from genetically mutating our
Speaker 2: species and that it was a lecture in second year
Speaker 2: of UNI and it was forensic entomology, and that's where
Speaker 2: I learned that maggots could help solve crime. And I
Speaker 2: was not watching a lot of bones with like David
Speaker 2: Boreanaz back in the day, and I thought, that was
Speaker 2: right up my alley.
Speaker 1: What's going on with the maggots. They're like freaky happy.
Speaker 2: And so I did a research project with that lecturer,
Speaker 2: James Woman, and he showed me how cool flies are
Speaker 2: and putting even the most annoying blowfly onto the microscope,
Speaker 2: I was absolutely blown away by how beautiful they are.
Speaker 2: They're like metallic, shiny blues and greens and just gorgeous.
Speaker 2: And that's where I caught the flybug and have started studying.
Speaker 2: It's been more than ten years now.
Speaker 1: And what is the work that you're doing now? What
Speaker 1: is your day today? Like when you go into your office,
Speaker 1: when you sit down at your computer of the lab.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I am a taxonomist, and taxonomy is the
Speaker 2: science of naming and classifying species. So one of the
Speaker 2: best parts of being a taxonomist is that you actually
Speaker 2: go out in nature and collect and go on really
Speaker 2: amazing field trips. I've been lucky enough to go to
Speaker 2: Lord Howe Island, which is this gorgeous, remote, Jurassic Park
Speaker 2: style island about four hours flying east of Sydney. I've
Speaker 2: gone to Chile to collect flies, Costa Rica, South America,
Speaker 2: New Zealand, and it's really cool going out and seeing
Speaker 2: the personalities of these flies. Believe it or not, because
Speaker 2: I spend so much of my time in a museum
Speaker 2: looking at pin research specimens. They're obviously dead studying a
Speaker 2: species for like five years, and then going out and
Speaker 2: seeing it in nature, in its habitat, and then you
Speaker 2: can see its personality, how it like it cleans its
Speaker 2: eyes and like rubs its hands together, it does these
Speaker 2: beautiful dancers in the air. Oh, it's kind of like
Speaker 2: meeting a celebrity. Actually, it's I love it. I love
Speaker 2: this job. It's so good because not only do you
Speaker 2: go out collecting, but you bring back the specimens that
Speaker 2: you collect, and then you have the fun experience of
Speaker 2: trying to identify them and playing a really complicated game
Speaker 2: of spotlet difference between what you've brought in and the
Speaker 2: museum specimens, and that's when you can see if you
Speaker 2: can identify it and if it's an existing species or
Speaker 2: if it's a brand new species to science. And that's
Speaker 2: where it's really fun, because if you discover a new species,
Speaker 2: you get to name it whatever you like. Oh, I
Speaker 2: know you'll have a lot of fun there.
Speaker 1: I know you can have a lot of fun there.
Speaker 1: I mean, how many new species of I have you
Speaker 1: discovered and gotten to name.
Speaker 2: In the last ten years. I have named fifty species
Speaker 2: nea science, but I've actually discovered one hundred fifty extra
Speaker 2: ones that are new that I haven't actually had time
Speaker 2: to name because it's such a long, complicated, exciting process.
Speaker 1: Wow. So he's named fifty discovered one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: other new species of flies, just forever changing the knowledge
Speaker 1: that we possess on Earth and naming it.
Speaker 2: Do you know why though there are so many new
Speaker 2: species out there?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Why is it because the world's heating up? Is there more? Pooh?
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 2: It's because we don't have enough taxonomists or biologists out
Speaker 2: there to simply go out find them and document them.
Speaker 2: There's probably, oh, I don't know, I'd say like maybe
Speaker 2: five hundred dipterologists in the world, and there's one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty thousand species that are known, and scientists estimate
Speaker 2: that we've only described and named a quarter of all
Speaker 2: life on Earth. Just a quarter.
Speaker 1: Wow, it must be like trying to count buckets of
Speaker 1: water in the ocean. Just how do you even know
Speaker 1: where to find all these species? And when you're looking
Speaker 1: to see if it's a new species and you're looking
Speaker 1: at a microscope, what if you're looking at the specimen
Speaker 1: in the museum and they look different, but it's just
Speaker 1: because the one that you happen to catch has like
Speaker 1: one extra leg on accident.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what's really important here is that we have
Speaker 2: these museum collections that have all the known species that
Speaker 2: are known to science, that other entomologists have described, they've
Speaker 2: lodged the specimen in the museum. And what's really cool
Speaker 2: is these natural history museums are like libraries of life,
Speaker 2: and scientists are mailing specimens all over the world in
Speaker 2: the posts to other researchers. And this is actually getting
Speaker 2: a lot easier with new digitization technologies where you can
Speaker 2: take high risk images and then you can share those
Speaker 2: with other scientists. And it's my job as an entomologist
Speaker 2: to build upon our knowledge of our sex and helped
Speaker 2: discover and name these species that are nu just science,
Speaker 2: but also find out why they're different and how we
Speaker 2: can identify them. Because you know, one species might be
Speaker 2: a really important pollinator, one species might be a really
Speaker 2: bad pest species that you need to keep out of
Speaker 2: a country and might have some really important biosecurity impact
Speaker 2: to that country too. So naming a species is the
Speaker 2: first step to understanding that species, and it gives scientists
Speaker 2: a universal language to be able to talk about that.
Speaker 2: Otherwise we wouldn't know what we would call it.
Speaker 1: Does RuPaul know that you named a fly after her?
Speaker 2: They do, definitely. RuPaul hasn't emailed me or talked to
Speaker 2: me directly. He did retweet the RuPaul fly that I
Speaker 2: actually named after him last year, and that's the closest
Speaker 2: I've gotten to him. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, I mean so exciting. Also, I wasn't sure what
Speaker 1: RuPaul's pronouns were, and I was like, shoot, I got
Speaker 1: that wrong. But I looked it up and apparently RuPaul
Speaker 1: has said you can call me he, you can call
Speaker 1: me she, you can call me read justs and Kathy Lee.
Speaker 1: I don't care just as long as you call me me. However,
Speaker 1: right now you might be calling him egregious and Kathy
Speaker 1: Lee after some hurtful actions a few years back, excluding
Speaker 1: trans women from his show Drag Race, but he later
Speaker 1: issued a rupology saying quote, I understand and regret the
Speaker 1: hurt I have caused. The trans community are heroes of
Speaker 1: our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers. And for
Speaker 1: Brie the fly guy, he wanted a fly that represented
Speaker 1: the rainbow and a nod toward pride. And we chatted
Speaker 1: off Mike about LGBTQ plus representation in science right after
Speaker 1: we stopped recording, and I was like kah and I
Speaker 1: wanted to include those thoughts with his permission, So he
Speaker 1: sent me a great follow up note that read quote,
Speaker 1: I'm an openly gay scientist. A few years ago, I
Speaker 1: was a bit hesitant to come out publicly, thinking it
Speaker 1: would impact my career, but that negative thinking was the
Speaker 1: very reason why I decided to come out. I want
Speaker 1: young LGBTQ plus people to have career role models and
Speaker 1: see a play for themselves in the STEM workforce, he wrote.
Speaker 1: I hope the next generation can feel more comfortable bringing
Speaker 1: their whole selves to work and continue to better the
Speaker 1: world through awesome science. But I do recognize that I
Speaker 1: live in a safe part of the world, he writes,
Speaker 1: where I can be my true self, and that this
Speaker 1: is still a challenge in other parts of the world
Speaker 1: that will hopefully change for the better. Quote. So queer Scientists,
Speaker 1: Happy pride, keep being you, whether you're in or out.
Speaker 1: And you can check out five hundred Queer Scientists too.
Speaker 1: That's a great website. Can you tell me when you
Speaker 1: are choosing who to honor with a fly species, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, so lucky, what an honor? What is
Speaker 1: your process? And are you struck by the colors or
Speaker 1: the form or the moxie? And tell me also some
Speaker 1: of the people that you have named flies after?
Speaker 2: This is the most creative time you can have as
Speaker 2: a taxonomist is definitely when you get to name a species.
Speaker 2: But first you have to do all your science vigorously
Speaker 2: and thoroughly. First you've got to be sure it's a
Speaker 2: new species. So when I found this specimen, I saw
Speaker 2: that it was wearing the rainbow flag. It was this
Speaker 2: gorgeous metallic red blues, turquoise, yellows, purples, So I knew
Speaker 2: that was the defining feature of this species. And the
Speaker 2: other unique feature of this species is that it had
Speaker 2: this thorn like cook under its abdomen. It was tucked
Speaker 2: under the abdomen actually, and I thought, wow, that's so unique.
Speaker 2: And so I was watching a lot of RuPaul's drag
Speaker 2: race at the time as well, so I think subconsciously
Speaker 2: it was imprinting on me that I need to name
Speaker 2: this species up to roupall as well. So it became
Speaker 2: Opal Luma RuPaul, the glamazon fly of Australia.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 2: What was interesting is that he was doing some press
Speaker 2: about RuPaul's drag race and he was on the Ellen
Speaker 2: Show and Ellen flashed up an image of his new species.
Speaker 1: You're such an icon. There is a fly named after you.
Speaker 1: A scientist named a beautiful, brightly colored fly. I think
Speaker 1: we have a picture of it, and that is the
Speaker 1: Rue Paul.
Speaker 2: And the only thing he said was thanks a lot science,
Speaker 2: And I was like, that's it. I spent like a
Speaker 2: year of my life reporting documenting the species, and that's
Speaker 2: what you said.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such an indelible mark that there is
Speaker 1: a species that is forever named after you. When people
Speaker 1: long forget the entertainment. You did like that to me
Speaker 1: is a permanence in terms of your place on Earth.
Speaker 2: Species names lost fraternity, so you've got to get it right.
Speaker 2: It was interesting because the Graham Norton Show produced this
Speaker 2: email me and wanted a photo of the fly they
Speaker 2: could bring up when RuPaul was on the show this year,
Speaker 2: and I made sure to give him some science, some
Speaker 2: science that catched about it. And I said it had
Speaker 2: legs for days at the gorgeous rainbow species, and it
Speaker 2: had a thorn tucked under its abdomen. And then Ruport said,
Speaker 2: the upper luma RuPaul has a fierce look, legs for
Speaker 2: days and a distinctive thorn tucked under its abdomen. True,
Speaker 2: so that was a little bit better acknowledgment of the fly.
Speaker 2: I guess. Yeah. Out of the fifty species I've named,
Speaker 2: only two of them are after celebrities, and I figure
Speaker 2: the RuPaul fly was my fiftieth species, and the first
Speaker 2: fly that I ever named was always has a place
Speaker 2: in my heart. I was listening to a lot of
Speaker 2: this artist while looking at the type specimens under the microscope.
Speaker 2: I was listening to her music while I was describing it.
Speaker 2: It had a bright golden abdomen. There were only three
Speaker 2: specimens ever collected, the same number of the girl groups
Speaker 2: that she used to be in, and was also collected
Speaker 2: in the year that she was born. So I thought
Speaker 2: the universe was giving me a sign. So I named
Speaker 2: it Plinthina Beyonce, after the one and only Beyonce.
Speaker 1: Gorgeous. I have seen pictures and yes, absolutely stunning. Do
Speaker 1: you know if this queen Beee knows of her fly?
Speaker 2: I think she might. A lot of her fans were like,
Speaker 2: excuse me, it's a fly with a beehive, it should
Speaker 2: be a bee. Unfortunate study bees.
Speaker 1: Also, flies are cooler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, way cooler. Hey, bees get all the credit for pollination,
Speaker 2: but do you know that even the blowflies can carry
Speaker 2: twice as much pollen than a European honeybe And in Australia,
Speaker 2: farmers of mangoes, avocados and other agriculturally important care have
Speaker 2: plued onto this. So what they're doing is they're actually
Speaker 2: getting a lot of like dish heads and offal, sprinkling
Speaker 2: it around the beautiful orchards and encouraging the blowflies to
Speaker 2: come in because they like to lay their eggs in gross,
Speaker 2: stinky stuff. But while they do that, they're out there
Speaker 2: drinking the nectar from all the orchards and helping pollinate
Speaker 2: and increase the fruit rate. So how cool is that?
Speaker 2: Very cool?
Speaker 1: I mean, we have them to thank for so much
Speaker 1: of what we eat. And meanwhile, European honeybees, which are
Speaker 1: not even endemic to the United States, are getting all
Speaker 1: of the love on churios, boxes and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: which is just lies. It's apocryphal, it's not right. So I,
Speaker 1: for one starting to gravitate towards Team fly. Here. Pretty
Speaker 1: hardcore flies are winning my heart right now. Don't believe me.
Speaker 1: You can dust your furry butts into a twenty twenty
Speaker 1: study titled non beat Insects as Visitors and Pollinators of Crops,
Speaker 1: which notes that flies visited seventy two two percent of
Speaker 1: the crops that bees did, Thank you very much, and
Speaker 1: that the family of Serifidae aka hoverflies, are on it.
Speaker 1: They're the ones in your garden who sometimes look like
Speaker 1: a fly cause playing as a bee. But they have
Speaker 1: the most flexy wings of any flying insects. They hang
Speaker 1: out in mid air hoverflying by twisting their wings three
Speaker 1: hundred times a second, three hundred times a second at
Speaker 1: forty five degree angles. Now, another great Diptera pollinator family
Speaker 1: is the Kilifera dye, which are blowflies or bottleflies, which
Speaker 1: are considered filth flies. Excuse me, filth flies? How dare they?
Speaker 1: I mean? Yes, they eat shit and rotting bodies, but
Speaker 1: they like flowers too, okay, especially the ones that have
Speaker 1: evolved to smell like shit and rotting bodies. They are
Speaker 1: multi dimensional animals. More on them in a bit. But
Speaker 1: not all flies want rotting bodies. Some don't eat bodies
Speaker 1: at all, and some prefer to feast on alive, juicy
Speaker 1: bodies like yours. Speaking of badges, have you ever gotten
Speaker 1: a butt fly? What does it mean to you?
Speaker 2: Oh? My god, it's kind of a badge of honor
Speaker 2: for a diptrologist studying flies. They want to get bitten
Speaker 2: by these buttflies. And there's one hundred and eighty species
Speaker 2: of botflies in the world, but in Australia there aren't
Speaker 2: that many, and I think there's only one species that
Speaker 2: might actually bite kangaroos. So I haven't ever come across
Speaker 2: a botfly, but I know one of our mutual colleagues
Speaker 2: has phil torres. Yes, yeah, I think he got a bit.
Speaker 2: It was a Costa Rica or something.
Speaker 1: So I think he maybe was in Peru. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but the year was twenty nineteen. Entomologist and lepidopterology butterfly
Speaker 1: guest Phil Torres tweeted quote one of my mosquito bites
Speaker 1: from Peru keeps tingling and this is me prayer hands
Speaker 1: emoji that I finally got a buttfly. Phil documented his
Speaker 1: pregnance fly on his YouTube channel, The Jungle Die.
Speaker 4: I've got a botfly maggot living in my back right now,
Speaker 4: feeding on my flesh. If you saw my alass video,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm talking about. But if you didn't,
Speaker 4: let me just catch you up real quick. It is
Speaker 4: a maggot. It is alive, It is feeding on me.
Speaker 4: It is in my back. It is really gross, but
Speaker 4: it is also really fascinating.
Speaker 1: And inside an inflamed and separating mound on Phil's back,
Speaker 1: a flesh hitting maggot baby twisted and bucked, causing him
Speaker 1: some searing pains, although for some hosts apparently it's a
Speaker 1: rather smooth experience thanks to the natural painkillers and antibiotics
Speaker 1: the botfly larvae makes to keep you happy hosting. It
Speaker 1: is there any for the food and the childcare. They
Speaker 1: don't want to be a nuisance, they don't want to
Speaker 1: cause trouble. They just want to lap up your nutrients.
Speaker 1: And Phil has never posted the follow up video and
Speaker 1: the conclusion of his experience, but I texted him and
Speaker 1: friends he may be cutting it together and never before
Speaker 1: seen updates on his YouTube. So google the Jungle Diaries
Speaker 1: on YouTube, subscribe, and cross your fingers toast that he
Speaker 1: releases it. Because a botfly extraction is wild. I have
Speaker 1: watched so many, so many. Do they put their egg
Speaker 1: on a mosquito? Or how are they even laying an
Speaker 1: egg in your skin to eat your flesh and erupt force?
Speaker 1: I don't even know how they're getting in there. I
Speaker 1: have gone down rabbit holes watching botfly extractions, and I
Speaker 1: find them very soothing and disgusting.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, right, It's like the entomology version of pimple popping.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. It's so gross. This tear drop
Speaker 1: shape where when you think there can't be more botfly larvae,
Speaker 1: this big, bouncy, rotund wink comes out of a hole
Speaker 1: in your flesh. Just disgusting. I mean, do they ever
Speaker 1: bounce out of your skin? And then they pupate, but
Speaker 1: they just spin the larval stage in your flesh.
Speaker 2: Yes, so the lavel stage develops flesh because they actually
Speaker 2: eat it. It's really gross and they don't want to
Speaker 2: leave their food substrate. So what they've evolved are these
Speaker 2: really hardcore, like fish hook like spines. They're absolutely covered
Speaker 2: in them, and that's why they're so hard to remove
Speaker 2: because as you pull them, they're lodged and they're not
Speaker 2: coming out, so you sometimes need to get them surgically removed.
Speaker 2: And what's crazy is that the larvae looks so vicious,
Speaker 2: but the adults are so cute. They're just fat and
Speaker 2: fuzzy and they look like teddy bears. But like you said,
Speaker 2: they actually lay their eggs on mosquitoes, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: I think they're like the sumo wrestlers of the fly world.
Speaker 2: For these big, fat, buzzing flies, and they hunt down
Speaker 2: mosquitoes and wrestle them. The female watfly will extend her
Speaker 2: ovipositor to lay an egg on the foot of the mosquito.
Speaker 2: So the female watfly doesn't actually lay the egg on
Speaker 2: the victim. I guess you could call them the victim.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: So the mosquito does her dirty work. So it'll fly
Speaker 2: around land on your skin and the heat from your
Speaker 2: skin will actually trigger the wotfly exit hatch, and then
Speaker 2: it crawls out and then it starts burrowing in your skin,
Speaker 2: and then over the weeks and months, it turns into
Speaker 2: this thick fish hook larvae that is just eating your flesh.
Speaker 2: It's kind of gross.
Speaker 1: Does it stick its little buttthole out too, and just
Speaker 1: like like just the metabolites from your body. I understand
Speaker 1: that what you're looking, you're staring down the barrel of
Speaker 1: the business end of a maggot when you have a buttfly,
Speaker 1: which is just what a world, what a beautiful, wonderful world,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Head down, butt up. They actually have spiracles in their
Speaker 2: bomb as well, which are the portals for breathing. The
Speaker 2: head with their mouth is on the other side that's
Speaker 2: very deep in and they stick their butt up in
Speaker 2: the air and that's what they breathe in. So they
Speaker 2: breathe from their butts. That's what they don't drown in
Speaker 2: whatever they're eating, like your skin and the flesh.
Speaker 1: What a life cycle.
Speaker 2: But normal flies of gross, some are really cute as well,
Speaker 2: like the adult butt fly is really cute, and I
Speaker 2: encourage you to look at them on a search engine.
Speaker 1: Okay, I search engine this, and it's true. Some of
Speaker 1: them look like furry little potatoes with giant eyes, but
Speaker 1: not Dermatobia hominis, which specialize in human hosts in Central
Speaker 1: and South America, and many entomologists consider nurturing one in
Speaker 1: their body a rite of passage and kind of like
Speaker 1: a five to twelve week pregnancy until they're chubby. Half
Speaker 1: your pinky size maggot squirms its way out and wriggles
Speaker 1: into some nearby soil for two or three weeks, where
Speaker 1: it undergoes a makeover from a hardened dark sarcophagus to
Speaker 1: a stocky fly stunner that has a metallic blue ass
Speaker 1: as shiny as a Nissan hatchback and big red eyes
Speaker 1: that look like two boxing gloves. Ough, and it's made
Speaker 1: of you. What about life cycles of flies in general,
Speaker 1: because you've mentioned maggots before, we think of flies, we
Speaker 1: think of maggots. But is there a commonality when it
Speaker 1: comes to life cycles for flies or is it just
Speaker 1: like all over the fucking place.
Speaker 2: Ah? Yeah, they generally share the same faces or stages
Speaker 2: of the development so they'll obviously start out as an
Speaker 2: egg and this will generally hatch into several different stages
Speaker 2: of larvae, or we call in stars, and it depends
Speaker 2: on the family. Blowflies have three in stars where others
Speaker 2: have more. And then when they're larvae, they really just
Speaker 2: want to eat as much as they can, put on
Speaker 2: as much fat as they can because when they enter pupation,
Speaker 2: this fat is the energy that they need to go
Speaker 2: onto that amazing process called metamorphosis and come out as
Speaker 2: an adult. And what's really interesting is some flies, like
Speaker 2: the black souldier fly, don't eat very much when they're adults,
Speaker 2: so they're relying on the baby fat that they've accumulated
Speaker 2: to get them through adulthood. And some of these adults
Speaker 2: only last for eight days. So they hatch, they have
Speaker 2: only one thing on their mind, and that's to find
Speaker 2: a lover and make some babies to continue the cycle.
Speaker 1: My heavens, boy, hobby, I just I love the idea
Speaker 1: of a fly emerging from its pupil casing, being like
Speaker 1: I wish to take a lover. And with Musca domestica
Speaker 1: the house flies that you love, the female typically just
Speaker 1: takes one lover and then she clutches onto that one
Speaker 1: fateful jizload in her body for the rest of her life,
Speaker 1: going on to bear two thousand of his maggotty babies,
Speaker 1: which actually get laid his eggs and then they hatch
Speaker 1: into maggots and sometimes just a day. So how long
Speaker 1: will the adults live though? Just a single blissful month
Speaker 1: unless time if it's cold out and other so called
Speaker 1: filth flies include blowflies, bottleflies, which aren't houseflies, but they're
Speaker 1: slightly larger, and they're bright green and blue metallic buzzers.
Speaker 1: They love poop, they love death, and unlike houseflies, they
Speaker 1: live longer in colder weather. They can live six months
Speaker 1: in the winter, but about three sweaty months if they
Speaker 1: were born under Gemini skies. But why do some flies
Speaker 1: look like enameled metal? Brian says that some insects and flies,
Speaker 1: like the metallic rainbow roupallfly look metallic not because of
Speaker 1: a colored pigment, but because they have structural pigment, these
Speaker 1: microscopic ridges and transparent layers that split the light into
Speaker 1: metallic colors, he says, kind of like a CD or
Speaker 1: a DBD. And he told me that scientists think that
Speaker 1: the shine attracts mates and might even aid in camouflage,
Speaker 1: he said. Quote think of a metallic green fly hiding
Speaker 1: next to a reflective water drop on a leaf, which
Speaker 1: is honestly, very very cute and very refreshing sounding. And
Speaker 1: just like so many things on earth and in our lives,
Speaker 1: that fly shimmer makes other flies want to do the nasty.
Speaker 1: And speaking of nasty, let's keep talking filth flies. Have
Speaker 1: you ever had those round winged babies that fly out
Speaker 1: of your drain? Okay, those are called drain flies. They
Speaker 1: live in there and they eat garbage in your pipes.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that you should kill any of them,
Speaker 1: but pouring boiling hot water into your drains a few
Speaker 1: times over a few days, we'll make them not exist.
Speaker 1: This is your choice, though. And fruitflies are amber colored,
Speaker 1: usually with red eyes. They live one to two weeks
Speaker 1: in your kitchen, just enjoying that soupy, mature fruit you
Speaker 1: forgot you bought. And if you don't want them around,
Speaker 1: one fix is just to not let your counterfruit get soupy,
Speaker 1: or beg your roommates or your office mates not to
Speaker 1: More options on them later in the episode. Now, gnats
Speaker 1: are not fruit flies. I just found out they're totally different.
Speaker 1: Diptera nats tend to live outside, and sometimes a swarm
Speaker 1: of them will find your sticky lip gloss, and then
Speaker 1: it's up to you if you want to eat them
Speaker 1: like a whale and Joy's krill. Now, do you have
Speaker 1: any tiny flies that emerge from your potted plants? Those
Speaker 1: are probably fungus nets, and there are remedies ranging from
Speaker 1: soaking your potting soil with hydrogen peroxide to adding a
Speaker 1: layer of sand on top. But I'm bad at plants.
Speaker 1: Don't look at me.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: All of these things live in your house and they
Speaker 1: are flies, But only one is the poster maggot for flies,
Speaker 1: and it's the house fly. And what about house flies?
Speaker 1: I feel like that is the species of fly that
Speaker 1: we are most accustomed to. Are they just so successful
Speaker 1: that there's more of them around? Are they just perfectly
Speaker 1: suited to come into your house and sit on a sandwich?
Speaker 1: Are they barfing on your sandwich before they're eating it?
Speaker 1: Are their feet covered? And shit? Make me not hate
Speaker 1: them so much? If possible, they will, And I know
Speaker 1: it's not fair. They're just successful.
Speaker 2: It's not fair. They've just evolved. To be amazing. It's
Speaker 2: spreading all over the world, and you know they're just
Speaker 2: curious about what we do and the jealous of the
Speaker 2: amazing food we eat. That's all. Okay. A redeemable fact
Speaker 2: about house flies, Well, did you know that they're not
Speaker 2: just blowing vomit bubbles to be cute disgusting. They are
Speaker 2: actually blowing vomit bubbles to regulate their own body temperature.
Speaker 2: So if they're really hot, flies, like most insects, are ectothermic,
Speaker 2: so they can't actually regulate their body temperature, and it
Speaker 2: depends on the ambient temperature. So if they're overheating, they'll
Speaker 2: actually regurgitate a little bit of what they're they've eaten,
Speaker 2: put on the tip of their proposss, let it evaporate,
Speaker 2: you know, cool off, and they slop it back up
Speaker 2: and then that cools them down. So I think that's
Speaker 2: kind of a cool thing that a house fly does.
Speaker 1: That's great. I love it. For more on how animals
Speaker 1: regulate their temperatures, see the thermophysiology episode with doctor Shane
Speaker 1: Campbell Staton. Oh, and another cute thing that flies do
Speaker 1: for us, they're used metica to help clean open wounds
Speaker 1: because maggots like dead flesh, so they clean years out. Yay. Thanks.
Speaker 2: House Flies are actually really important pollinators too, believe it
Speaker 2: or not. So some of the research I was doing
Speaker 2: in the Alpine zone in Costiosco National Park, which is
Speaker 2: one of the biggest national parks in Australia, was looking
Speaker 2: at the flies and what they actually pollinate. And this
Speaker 2: is with my colleagues at CSRO, which is Australia's National
Speaker 2: Science Agency. And what we did we collected a bunch
Speaker 2: of flies and we made a little insects smoothie. So
Speaker 2: we put the insects in an Eppendorf tube and blended
Speaker 2: it all up and that released all the pollen that
Speaker 2: was attached to the fly. When the fly goes from
Speaker 2: one flower to the other drinking nectar, it gets doused
Speaker 2: in pollen, it sticks to the hair and then when
Speaker 2: it goes from flower to flower it helps pollinate. And
Speaker 2: so we were able to use these insectsmoothies to sequence
Speaker 2: the DNA of the pollen grains and weun that even
Speaker 2: the pesky bushfly that's related to the house fly can
Speaker 2: pollinate up to fifteen different varieties of native plants. So yes,
Speaker 2: we hate bushflies. And house flies. But they're out there
Speaker 2: doing this amazing job in nature, free of charge, helping
Speaker 2: to pollinate our native plants. So we should cut them
Speaker 2: some slack.
Speaker 1: I guess they do deserve some slack they do. What
Speaker 1: about their feet? Do they taste with their feet? Are
Speaker 1: they covered in shit all the time?
Speaker 2: Well, they have happy feet, because yes, they do taste
Speaker 2: from their feet. They're impatient. Instead of waiting to get
Speaker 2: the food in their mouth and like, you know, taste
Speaker 2: it that way like we would. They like to stand
Speaker 2: in whatever they're eating and it's yes, no, do I
Speaker 2: eat it? Do I not? And so what they do
Speaker 2: is if it tastes good, that's when they'll drop their probosis,
Speaker 2: their mouth part that has a sponge at the end
Speaker 2: that SAPs up all the liquid. And they actually do
Speaker 2: eat shit because shit is high in protein and other
Speaker 2: nutrients and electrolytes as well. But this is where the
Speaker 2: kind of nasty side of house flies comes into it,
Speaker 2: because if they're landing on shit with pathogens, those pathogens
Speaker 2: can get stuck to their feet, and that's when they
Speaker 2: fly inside and land on your food and spread those
Speaker 2: pathogens that could potentially make you sick. So That's why
Speaker 2: it's best to always cover your food, especially if you're
Speaker 2: having a barbecue outside, and make sure these flies don't
Speaker 2: actually land on it. And the other thing is closed
Speaker 2: the doors in summer. Always take out your rubbish pretty
Speaker 2: regularly because you don't want to encourage house flies to
Speaker 2: come inside. For these reasons, flies, madam, Yes, close the window.
Speaker 1: Are they smelling your garbage too? Are they like, smells
Speaker 1: a little rotten in there? My baby's a gonna love it.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, especially female blowflies.
Speaker 1: What pathogens? Is it possible they can spread? And I
Speaker 1: feel like we see a fly and we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: if it lands on my sandwich, I'm going to get
Speaker 1: an ebola and die. But what pathogens do they actually hear?
Speaker 1: Is it fewer or more than we think?
Speaker 2: Oh, well, we're just scratching the surface at the moment.
Speaker 2: So with advances in microbiome analysis, I've got some colleagues
Speaker 2: that are actually grinding up the flies and sequencing everything
Speaker 2: that's in that body, all the microbes, pathogens, and parasites
Speaker 2: as well. So we're just getting into it. But horseflies,
Speaker 2: sometimes called march flies, they have been in the past
Speaker 2: known to transfer anthrax, even though it's super rare and
Speaker 2: in such low doses where it's not going to be
Speaker 2: the next outbreak, but it's definitely something we're just discovering
Speaker 2: about these insects.
Speaker 1: Listen, I wants all to respect flies, but I'm not
Speaker 1: flies overworked high profile publicist or lawyer. Okay, I'm not
Speaker 1: Olivia Pope swooping in in a white coat to be
Speaker 1: like it's handled. So I'm going to give you the
Speaker 1: dirt on this. I'm going to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: of shit on flies for a second. According to Penn
Speaker 1: States and homology data on Musca domestica, which is the housefly,
Speaker 1: they are a quote strongly suspected of transmitting at least
Speaker 1: sixty five diseases to humans, including typhoid, fever, dysentery, cholera, polio, yaws, anthrax, leprosy, tuberculosis,
Speaker 1: helminth eggs, protozoasis, and other bacteria, fungi, and viruses by
Speaker 1: the mechanical transmission through its vomits or excreta end quote.
Speaker 1: So maybe you would not hurt a fly, but if
Speaker 1: you would just know that they can sense movements and
Speaker 1: air currents before your rolled up newspaper even gets close,
Speaker 1: which is why you want a fly swater that has
Speaker 1: a lot of holes in it or is mesh because
Speaker 1: it doesn't send such a wave of air to warn them.
Speaker 1: So I'm sorry houseflies, you know what, Let's change one letter.
Speaker 1: Let's settle up for horseflies, which flies bite because you
Speaker 1: say horseflies, and I think about those big, huge, buzzing
Speaker 1: horseflies and you're like, oh, why do they even have
Speaker 1: a mouth that can bite anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's only the female horsepy that bites because
Speaker 2: she needs the protein in your blood to ripen her eggs,
Speaker 2: and without it, she won't have any viable eggs and
Speaker 2: they can't, you know, continue their lineage. So the males
Speaker 2: and some females from some species a completely vegetarian and
Speaker 2: only eat nectar and pollen. But horsefly bites are particularly
Speaker 2: painful because she has these saw blade like structures called
Speaker 2: stylets that run parallel to her probosis. And instead of
Speaker 2: a mosquito that has a needle like probosis that just
Speaker 2: slips in your skin and slurps it up, the horsefly
Speaker 2: will actually land and use these two saw blades to
Speaker 2: rip through your skin, and she's just soaring through your
Speaker 2: flesh to expose as much blood and make it spill
Speaker 2: as much as she can, and that's why it's so
Speaker 2: painful to get bit by horsefly.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you know what, knowing that makes me feel
Speaker 1: better weirdly, because I'm like, that's pretty metal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh, it gets worse. She'll also spit in the
Speaker 2: lesions she creates because her saliva has anticoagulant properties and
Speaker 2: blood thinning properties, so this stops the platelets and your
Speaker 2: blood from coagulating, so they flow more freely, so she
Speaker 2: can just slurp it up with a spongy mouthpart and
Speaker 2: get as much blood in her as she can.
Speaker 1: I love blood, and this assumed like, is this kind
Speaker 1: of how mosquitoes evolve too. They just evolved a different
Speaker 1: mouth mechanism to just cut straight to the chase.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so mosquitoes are much more delicate. You've ever hit
Speaker 2: a mosquito, They just disintegrate on your hands then turn
Speaker 2: into like a great puff. So mosquitoes have evolved to
Speaker 2: be a little bit more sly, the kind of the
Speaker 2: stealth team of the insect world. So the female mosquita
Speaker 2: will land on you, and it's always after the fact
Speaker 2: that we notice that we've been bitten. When it starts
Speaker 2: to react to get itchy. So she'll land on our skin,
Speaker 2: slide her needle probosis into our flesh, and she also
Speaker 2: spits a little bit of saliva and anticoagulant chemicals into
Speaker 2: our skin to make it flow better as well, and
Speaker 2: then she'll fly off. And what's interesting is because she
Speaker 2: spits into our skin, this is where people start getting
Speaker 2: allergic to these bites, and that's when it will starts swelling.
Speaker 2: And a couple of minutes after she's bit that's where
Speaker 2: we notice we've actually been visited by a mosquito.
Speaker 1: Visit it is such a sweet and mystical way to
Speaker 1: put it, so generous of you, dude.
Speaker 2: I know, but mosquitoes are the biggest vectors of serious
Speaker 2: diseases like malaria that cause the death of millions of
Speaker 2: people in the world. But it's not actually the female
Speaker 2: mosquito that is the killer. It's actually the parasites and
Speaker 2: microbes that hitches a ride in her belly and in
Speaker 2: her salivo that she transmits. So I guess, yeah, mosquitoes
Speaker 2: have a role in disease transmission, but they're not the killers.
Speaker 1: They need their own episodes because honestly, They're just moms
Speaker 1: out there. They're trying to feed their kids. They've been
Speaker 1: framed for all the malaria stuff, like someone planted pathogens
Speaker 1: in them. Okay, so calisidology, mosquitoes, watch the space, We're
Speaker 1: gonna do it. Flies in the media. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about the fly? Those weird hairs that were growing
Speaker 1: out of your back?
Speaker 2: And I haven't analyzed, but they were definitely not humans.
Speaker 1: Have you seen the fly? Did it make you want
Speaker 1: to be a dipterroologist more or less?
Speaker 2: Bloody? Jeff Golbum? I swear I think you've done more
Speaker 2: to hurt flies and get people. Jeff, Jeff, Jeff. I
Speaker 2: watched as kid. I think I might've been around ten,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was scary. It was like a
Speaker 2: horror movie and it was just disgusting where it starts
Speaker 2: vomiting on everything. And for Genia Davis what she had
Speaker 2: to go through that.
Speaker 1: Would you ever name a fly after Jeff Goblum or
Speaker 1: Gina Davis?
Speaker 2: Do you know what? There probably is a Jeff Golbin
Speaker 2: fly somewhere out there that maybe doesn't vomit on his
Speaker 2: food so much, but maybe he's out there pollinating flowers
Speaker 2: or composting our garden. Who don't know. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: that's the problem with the media, Like we've kind of
Speaker 2: perpetuated this negative image of flies, when actually they're the
Speaker 2: heroes of our nature, like they pollinate their recycled nutrients,
Speaker 2: they're really important in the food web, and we've kind
Speaker 2: of demonized them. So that's why it's really important to
Speaker 2: talk about it and change people's perceptions. And if I
Speaker 2: could get people on board with flies, it would be
Speaker 2: with this one fact. Without flies, there would be no chocolate.
Speaker 2: What really, Yeah, that's because the cocoa plant is pollinated
Speaker 2: by these tiny little midge fliers from the family Sarah Pagernady,
Speaker 2: And they're the only thing small enough to crawl through
Speaker 2: the cocoa flower and pollinate it. And if we didn't
Speaker 2: have them, the most important pollinators of these plants, we
Speaker 2: wouldn't have chocolates. So be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 1: I'd say, ah MVPs, thank you midge flies. Teen teen
Speaker 1: tiny flies, We love you. I think that they're beautiful too.
Speaker 1: It seems like when you look at them up close,
Speaker 1: you start to really appreciate the architecture and the color
Speaker 1: palette of flies. Would you say that as someone who's
Speaker 1: looked through a lot of microscopes at them?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And I didn't know how beautiful flies
Speaker 2: were and until I started putting them onto the microscope
Speaker 2: and studying them, and that's when I had my journey
Speaker 2: of hating flies to appreciating their beauty as well. Blowflies, horseflies. Oh,
Speaker 2: there are some horse flies that actually mimic bees and
Speaker 2: look like fairy bees. And that's so when they're out
Speaker 2: on a flower, birds won't eat them because they're expecting
Speaker 2: to get stung. Where the joke's on the bird because
Speaker 2: they didn't actually have stingers. Flies. So I encourage you
Speaker 2: to just if you see a fly in the garden
Speaker 2: next time, don't show it away, but you know, take
Speaker 2: a photo and maybe start a digital collection and appreciate
Speaker 2: their inner beauty. And I've got a ton of images
Speaker 2: of gorgeous flies on my social media channels that you
Speaker 2: should check out.
Speaker 1: Oh, I've seen them and they're so beautiful. Do you
Speaker 1: have a recommendation if someone wanted to get into microscopy
Speaker 1: and just instead of staring at their phone and social
Speaker 1: media that's not yours, that just getting a microscope for
Speaker 1: home use for fun. Do you have any recommendations for
Speaker 1: like what power of microscope are like for a total
Speaker 1: beginner and dilettante who just wants to look at dead bugs?
Speaker 1: Any recommendations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you don't want to get a full blown
Speaker 2: microscope and you just kind of want to test the waters,
Speaker 2: a really gateway entry point for microscopy is you can
Speaker 2: get these beautiful macro lens attachments for your smartphone and
Speaker 2: they have you know, maybe three or four times magnification
Speaker 2: on them, and you just pop your phone over the
Speaker 2: specimen and you can take photos of these speeches too.
Speaker 1: Do you want to do a dipterroologist to favor? You
Speaker 1: can also help scientists by uploading those photos to community
Speaker 1: science apps, for example.
Speaker 2: Like I Naturalists, but also have identification features and they
Speaker 2: can give you a percentage accuracy hit to what binaturalists
Speaker 2: actually thinks that species is.
Speaker 1: Can I do a lightning round of Patreon questions from listeners?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Please on my website linked in the show notes. I'll
Speaker 1: include some macro lens guides and definitely check out the
Speaker 1: Periology episode with Joseph Saunders, which is literally all about
Speaker 1: macro photography with insects it's so good. But before we
Speaker 1: get to your questions, let's DiPT a toe in the
Speaker 1: waters of charity. Let's send some money toward a cause
Speaker 1: of the ologists choosing I'm sorry that was the worst.
Speaker 1: That wasn't even a good punt at all. I don't
Speaker 1: know why, said, but Brian selected the World Wildlife Federation WWF,
Speaker 1: and Brian says they are championing global action to protect
Speaker 1: our delicate biodiverse, especially after Australia was hit by the
Speaker 1: devastating bushfires that impacted so many native species there. So
Speaker 1: for more on what they do, check out WWF dot org.
Speaker 1: So thank you sponsors for the money that we send
Speaker 1: their way. Okay, let's blow through your fly questions. Are
Speaker 1: you ready ready hit me? Okay? All right? Great questions
Speaker 1: from Theodore at Visian, Wendy Westerduin, Alex Rtman, Emily Webb,
Speaker 1: David Ruscalata Gomez, Emily first time question asker. They want
Speaker 1: to know, in Emily's words, why do they come into
Speaker 1: a room and then fly in circles instead of leaving
Speaker 1: the way they came. Wendy wants to know why does
Speaker 1: it fly in triangles then sometimes in squares? What's their
Speaker 1: flight pattern, Like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really awesome question. It really depends on the spaces,
Speaker 2: because some fly researchers are actually studying the different flight
Speaker 2: patterns of different spaces, and some are triangular, some are square,
Speaker 2: and some just sort of complete mess. They look like
Speaker 2: drunken little pilots going everywhere. But they definitely fly indoors
Speaker 2: if you've got the light on, because they're atracted to
Speaker 2: the light and sometimes they get stuck there. And I've
Speaker 2: noticed on really hot days if I've left my door
Speaker 2: open or even the porch, you can see them under
Speaker 2: the porch and they think it's a tree canopy and
Speaker 2: they're flying around with their friends. And what they're doing
Speaker 2: is they're actually dancing. They're courtship dancing. So generally it's
Speaker 2: the males that dance. Why the females are perched on
Speaker 2: a leaf looking for the best dancer, so she'll come
Speaker 2: up and pick the best dancer and choose him to
Speaker 2: mate with. So it pays to have sick dance moves
Speaker 2: if you're a fly.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. And is that what's kind of happening
Speaker 1: in their flight pattern or is there also a strategy
Speaker 1: for maybe discouraging them from coming into your doorway.
Speaker 2: I think they just get trapped inside. And I think
Speaker 2: the flight pattern species specific, and it might be a
Speaker 2: courtship dance as well, So there's a specific pattern they
Speaker 2: might use to attract female flies. These well dancing nlesh
Speaker 2: so sexy.
Speaker 1: Elena Horne, Cassafrass Melinda Jenkins and first time question asker
Speaker 1: Emily Layfield. In Emily's words, want to know and this
Speaker 1: is maybe not the most fly friendly question, but you'll
Speaker 1: change our minds. Emily wants to why do flies seem
Speaker 1: to have an exponentially more annoying and loud buzz than
Speaker 1: any other insect I've run across. What's making the buzzing sound?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: They're wings? So that's in Emily's words, So why are
Speaker 1: they loud? And how can we embrace the loudness?
Speaker 2: They are loud, but they're not the loudest of all insects.
Speaker 2: I think we just noticed them because they're a bit
Speaker 2: more curious and come to us sometimes. Well, it's definitely
Speaker 2: the wings, especially the big, fat, juicy flies like lowflies.
Speaker 2: You'll hear them because they beat their wings so strongly.
Speaker 2: But I remember collecting in the flower patches of New Zealand,
Speaker 2: And it was actually the bumblebees that drove me crazy
Speaker 2: because I tuned into my ears to tell the different
Speaker 2: types of flies apart because they all have a different buzz,
Speaker 2: so I can collect them. But then these bloody, droney
Speaker 2: bumblebees would come in and just drown out the sound.
Speaker 2: So I don't think flies are the most annoying insects.
Speaker 2: Bumble Bees are much louder.
Speaker 1: How are you collecting them? Are you using one of
Speaker 1: those aspirators where you have to suck it up in
Speaker 1: a tube?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely use an aspirator or a pewter that
Speaker 2: they're affectionately called too. But my favorite collecting method is
Speaker 2: using my trusty insect net that looks like a butterfly net.
Speaker 2: Most people think that's really good at catching flies buzzing
Speaker 2: around in the air. And I remember collecting at this
Speaker 2: water hole where all the tourists were swimming and they're like, mate, mate,
Speaker 2: come here, you must be here to collect the brown snake,
Speaker 2: and I'm no, I don't want to touch the snake.
Speaker 2: I'm here to collect your flies.
Speaker 1: I love it. You do have to carry a lot
Speaker 1: less back to the lab. I imagine that your fly
Speaker 1: samples can fit just in like a tackle box.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the flies are much smaller so they don't take
Speaker 2: up that much space. But we also use malaise traps
Speaker 2: that look like tents, and what happens is the flies
Speaker 2: fly into the tent and then they work their way
Speaker 2: up into this bottle of ethanol that we have at
Speaker 2: the top, and they get preserved in that bottle. So
Speaker 2: what's really cool is we can take them back into
Speaker 2: the lab and the ethanol preserves the DNA, which is
Speaker 2: cool because then we can extract the DNA and sequence
Speaker 2: its genetic fingerprint to confirm that it's a new species.
Speaker 2: And we use this all the time in entomology.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2: Really cool because you could go to like really remote
Speaker 2: places like rainforests and put these traps up and they
Speaker 2: do the collecting for you and you can find some
Speaker 2: really nice surprises in there afterwards.
Speaker 1: I know they do that in Los Angeles and they've
Speaker 1: found new species of flies in Los Angeles and flies
Speaker 1: that they didn't expect here. And it's so interesting too
Speaker 1: because it just looks like a little pop up tent,
Speaker 1: you know, tiny, and that there's so much entomology being
Speaker 1: done in something that's just like the size of a
Speaker 1: Starbucks cup.
Speaker 2: You know, it's crazy, right, and especially putting them in
Speaker 2: people's backyards. I think they found like seventy new spaces
Speaker 2: of forid flies in California using this method. It's just nuts.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think Brian Brown is the dypterrologist I once
Speaker 1: chatted with at the NHM about that. They've got this
Speaker 1: bioscan project where you could walk by in the nature
Speaker 1: lab at the NHM and there'd just be people entomologists
Speaker 1: sorting through whatever they found in the malaise traps and
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm watching new species be discovered.
Speaker 2: So cool.
Speaker 1: For more on this, you can check out the bio
Speaker 1: Scan project at my beloved Natural History Museum of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles County and doctor Brian V. Brown, who's also a
Speaker 1: diptorist or a dypturologist, has discovered five hundred species of
Speaker 1: ford fly and counting, including the world's smallest known fly,
Speaker 1: which is a wee Brazilian species just two one hundreds
Speaker 1: of an inch long or a third of a millimeter,
Speaker 1: which he named mega pro Pottyphoria Arnaldi. Brian Brown told
Speaker 1: the press a few years ago quote as soon as
Speaker 1: I saw these bulging legs, I knew I had to
Speaker 1: name this one after Arnold. He means Schwarzenecker, just saying
Speaker 1: you want to discover species flies people. Also, in reading
Speaker 1: about Brian's work with forid flies, I just tripped headfirst
Speaker 1: into an article about the coffin fly, which is a
Speaker 1: velvety black fly that can dig several meters down through
Speaker 1: dirt and get into coffins. So please disregard all my
Speaker 1: previous statements about California condors or ravens or vampire squids
Speaker 1: being the world's gothist creatures because I just don't think
Speaker 1: it gets more death metal than a coffin fly. And
Speaker 1: also those forehead or humpback fly babies, they're also agents
Speaker 1: of just gladiatorial horrors.
Speaker 2: The humpback flies a bad us because some of the
Speaker 2: tiniest flies, I think some of them are smaller than
Speaker 2: a grain of salt, and they eat ant heads. So
Speaker 2: the larvae will actually crawl into the ant and eat
Speaker 2: all the muscular chure around the jaws, and then they'll
Speaker 2: emerge and burst out of the ant's head, kind of
Speaker 2: like alien. So tiny flies can be super powerful as well.
Speaker 1: Flies are such mysteries, and they do have a lot
Speaker 1: on their mind, and they are plotting a lot. And
Speaker 1: this can be evidenced by the way that they rub
Speaker 1: their hands together. In Giselle Martinez's words, why do they
Speaker 1: rub their grubby little hands together every time they land
Speaker 1: on my food? Why are they doing the evil little
Speaker 1: hand rubbed thing. Lynn Reid wants to know. So what
Speaker 1: are they doing? Are they cleaning themselves? So many folks
Speaker 1: needed this info. I'm looking at you, patrons, Julia Hannah Frasier,
Speaker 1: Margo Beka Christensen, marx Orbach, Jared Abrams, Micah Deelman, Allen
Speaker 1: orn Standforth, Alex Hrtman, and first time question. I we're
Speaker 1: gonna call Broader who said I never appreciated flies until
Speaker 1: I saw one taking a moment for itself on my window.
Speaker 1: Sell and it was caressing itself so slowly and meditatively
Speaker 1: that it was really beautiful. I think it was giving
Speaker 1: itself the equivalent of a fly spa day. Are they
Speaker 1: cleaning their face? Are they cleaning their hands? What's happening there?
Speaker 2: It's funny because it looks like they're hatching a diabolical
Speaker 2: plot to kill you. Really, yeah, they are just cleaning themselves,
Speaker 2: especially their eyes because you know, they don't have eyelids
Speaker 2: like us, they can't blink to get rid of any debris.
Speaker 2: So they use their hands like little paws to like
Speaker 2: clear the dust and the bits of sticks on their eyes.
Speaker 2: And then they rub their hands together and get them
Speaker 2: off their hands. Because it's like if you ate, i
Speaker 2: don't know, like like a hot chocolate and it covered
Speaker 2: your tongue, you'd want to like, you know, cleanse the palate.
Speaker 2: So when they rub their hands together, they're technically cleansing
Speaker 2: their palate because they taste with their feet.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they taste with their okay, normal cool, no islands,
Speaker 1: got it? Actually, a lot of you, including Jacob Bowman, Penelote, Adkins,
Speaker 1: Sarah King, Ashley Curtains Or a young theater of vocen
Speaker 1: Reng Groves, and first time question asker Kate Waters and
Speaker 1: Deborah Kenley needed to know. What about their eyes though?
Speaker 1: How well do they see?
Speaker 2: Amazingly well? So their eyes are compound eyes, so instead
Speaker 2: of having you know, one lens per eye like us
Speaker 2: that we can focus, they actually have up to six
Speaker 2: thousand mini lenses called omitidia. And what happens is that
Speaker 2: the brain stitches all these more basic images together into
Speaker 2: this one image, and that's why they are so quick,
Speaker 2: because they can pretty much slow down time essentially. That's
Speaker 2: how they see, so they can see your hands swatting
Speaker 2: from miles away and then they can react. And what's
Speaker 2: really cool is some species have rudimentary eye spots above
Speaker 2: their big eyes, called selly and what these are. They
Speaker 2: look like three little dots in a triangle, and these
Speaker 2: actually can monitor different light levels. So when they're flying
Speaker 2: in rainforests when the sun comes out, they know where
Speaker 2: to go, and they can also orientate themselves a little
Speaker 2: bit more. So they have all this amazing sensory equipment
Speaker 2: in their head that is just incredible that we just
Speaker 2: have no idea about and we dismiss them. But flies
Speaker 2: are cool.
Speaker 1: What about fruitflies in science too? A bunch of listeners
Speaker 1: wanted to know how do you get rid of fruitflies?
Speaker 1: But also why are fruitflies used in so much genetic research?
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. And I think fruitflies have
Speaker 2: about eighty percent of the genes in common with humans,
Speaker 2: so they're really good models to test genetics. The impacts
Speaker 2: of drugs on them, and even NASA have been using
Speaker 2: fruitflies for decades. They've been setting them out into outer
Speaker 2: space to see what the effects of gravity and radio
Speaker 2: r on these fruitflies, using them as a model for humans.
Speaker 2: And the reason why they use fruitflies is because you
Speaker 2: can grow them like crazy in the lab. You can
Speaker 2: you know, you can upscale them, so you've got plenty
Speaker 2: of little little mini mice models. Essentially, it's a test on.
Speaker 1: So yes fruitfly science lovers or experimenters out there. Mallory Skinner,
Speaker 1: Erica Perryandre Lisa Saint, Kyli Chung, Lauren Legg and Popita Drosophilia.
Speaker 1: Flies do do a service for humans and we thank
Speaker 1: them for their sacrifice. And also thank you to patron
Speaker 1: and scientist Paul Smith who asked why fly napp smelled
Speaker 1: so good and made me google fly napp, which is
Speaker 1: fly anesthesia Night night, Sorry flies. Thank you now. Fruitfly haters,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you, Jesse Hurlbert, Mallory lb naw Me,
Speaker 1: James Craig Collins, Celestisso and Sam Holmes. You may notice
Speaker 1: why the fly guy did not answer your question about
Speaker 1: committing dip terocide or getting rid of fruitflies, because this
Speaker 1: man is not about to give you directions for fly murder.
Speaker 1: But if you were to say, decant some apple cider
Speaker 1: or vinegar into a small bowl or cup, if you
Speaker 1: happen to cover that with plastic grap and poked a
Speaker 1: few holes, if they happen to go in there and
Speaker 1: party and then drown in a bath of this delicious liquid,
Speaker 1: well then that is their own choice. You can also
Speaker 1: just get rid of the soggy fruit in your house.
Speaker 1: That'll help too. If you want to hire an assassin,
Speaker 1: you can listen to the Carnivorous Photo Biology episode about
Speaker 1: meat eating plants and just invest in a sundew which
Speaker 1: will sit on your windowsill and do this dirty work
Speaker 1: for you. It's just a circle of life on your windowsill. Baby.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Brian. Okay, one more listener question, and I
Speaker 1: think you're going to appreciate it. Greg Collins, Laura Salisbury,
Speaker 1: Derek Allen, Elizabeth Hemenez, Baminik, Kendall Hargas. First time question
Speaker 1: asker Patty S. They all want to know, in your opinion,
Speaker 1: what is the cutest fly? Which flies are cute? Tell
Speaker 1: us which ones to look at?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, okay, oh okay, put on the spot.
Speaker 2: There's so many you should definitely check out the qt fly,
Speaker 2: which is a cute little bay fly. There is this
Speaker 2: ball of yellow fuzz with this little cute preposteris sticking
Speaker 2: out and actually inspired the qutfly from Pokemon. It looks
Speaker 2: exactly like that in real life, and you'd want to
Speaker 2: keep it as a pet.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I did search engine the Pokemon cutifly Akaa
Speaker 1: bumbalidii aka bee flies or humble flies, and yes, they
Speaker 1: are cute and they do look humble, and they're named
Speaker 1: after bumblebees, but they're flies. So if you were to
Speaker 1: cosplay as qutifly, you're a human posing as a fly,
Speaker 1: posing as a bee.
Speaker 2: So definitely check that one out. It's adorable.
Speaker 1: Can you keep flies as pets? Do people do it?
Speaker 2: I think? I'm sorry, I think you can. I think
Speaker 2: people do without realizing in the compost soldier flies with
Speaker 2: like leathery segmented worms that eat your compost. I've thought
Speaker 2: about designing some like activities for teachers that they can
Speaker 2: take in school to have their own mini livestock of
Speaker 2: black soldier flies, but I think it would be too
Speaker 2: gross and stinky.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess whenever you see a house fly, just
Speaker 1: think I have a pet fly for you know, maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be eight days, maybe eight minutes. Who knows.
Speaker 2: That's the beauty of the mystery, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: What about In all of this talk of what is
Speaker 1: good about flies? I always have to ask this, what
Speaker 1: sucks shit about flies? What do you hate about flies?
Speaker 1: What do you hate about your research? What's the worst
Speaker 1: thing about being a dipterrologist? Is it having something eat
Speaker 1: your flesh that's a baby? Like? What one sucks?
Speaker 2: I think crawling into dead animals is top of my list.
Speaker 2: When I was doing Crens against Homology, I remember stopping
Speaker 2: at roadkill and there was this massive wombat that got
Speaker 2: hit by a car and it was really sad because
Speaker 2: one bats are so cute, but it was huge, And
Speaker 2: I remember putting my gloves in and I crawled inside
Speaker 2: that thing to pull out these larvae that I was
Speaker 2: interested in to identify because I thought it might be
Speaker 2: a new species. And yeah, it's amazing. Starting out of
Speaker 2: friends and entomology lab feeding maggots smelling like death. I
Speaker 2: remember returning to my lectures and no one wanted to
Speaker 2: sit next to me because I smelled like and I
Speaker 2: couldn't smell anymore and everyone just moved away. So that's
Speaker 2: definitely one of the things.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is how unfunded science is in generally,
Speaker 2: But that could be its own podcast, are you right?
Speaker 1: I love smelling like death and grants around the scene.
Speaker 1: The perks must outweigh it.
Speaker 2: Right, Definitely, like going to gorgeous places, going out in nature,
Speaker 2: making discoveries like that. That's what I'm passionate about.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite thing about flies? What do you
Speaker 1: respect the most about them? Where? How do they just
Speaker 1: burrow into your heart a little?
Speaker 2: Oh? I love that. Oh I hope it's not a
Speaker 2: botfly borrow into my heart because I think we just
Speaker 2: don't give wise enough credit. Like it just amazes me
Speaker 2: how so we're so dismissive, but they do so much
Speaker 2: for us in part of our everyday life. They they
Speaker 2: pollinate the hops that go in beer, They pollinate the
Speaker 2: grapes that we you know, make wine from. They give
Speaker 2: us chocolate, the recycling nutrients, I said, like flies of
Speaker 2: the original hipsters, because they only need organic and they
Speaker 2: love to recycle and they do this for free, and
Speaker 2: we just shit on them. And they're so important in
Speaker 2: the ecosystem. Yeah, so it's just this light inside me
Speaker 2: that needs to get out and shine and sing their
Speaker 2: praises because flies are so important and we need to
Speaker 2: start respecting them before it's too late and they become
Speaker 2: extinct through you know, climate change and deforestation. So now's
Speaker 2: the time, so we can, you know, discover all those
Speaker 2: species out there, name them and learn about them, what
Speaker 2: roles they do on the ecosystem, and protect the ones
Speaker 2: that need to help.
Speaker 1: I love that this summer or winter, depending on where
Speaker 1: you are, you might people might be inspired to go
Speaker 1: get a macro lens for their phone and just start
Speaker 1: looking at flies.
Speaker 2: I hope so because you honestly you don't know you
Speaker 2: could discover a species and you just science in your
Speaker 2: own backyard. I've had people post photos of flies they've
Speaker 2: seen in the garden and they've become new species, and
Speaker 2: I was so excited that, you know, so on on Instagram,
Speaker 2: just posted this photo of this gorgeous fly that has
Speaker 2: never been documented to science before. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: The dream, The dream. And on social media, where can
Speaker 1: people see more of your work and your flies.
Speaker 2: I'm on Instagram and Twitter at Brye the Fly Guy
Speaker 2: and this September, I'm actually releasing my first children's book
Speaker 2: on fies to encourage kids to get into flies and
Speaker 2: biodiversity and appreciate the world around them. So keep your
Speaker 2: eyes on these flies.
Speaker 1: I guess I love it. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being on. You were a joy time flu.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having the alley and letting
Speaker 2: me talk about flies and my crazy passion for them.
Speaker 1: So ask brilliant people ridiculous gross questions because now you
Speaker 1: know a lot about flies, and you can look for
Speaker 1: Briye the fly guy on social media that links to
Speaker 1: his websites in the show notes. He's so wonderful. We're
Speaker 1: at Ologies on Instagram and Twitter. I'm Ali with one
Speaker 1: L on both do say hello. You can put some
Speaker 1: Ologies merch on your bod We have bucket hats, we
Speaker 1: have swimsuits, totes, the works, all available at ologiesmerch dot
Speaker 1: com so you can find each other in the wild
Speaker 1: this summer. Thank you Susan Hale for managing merch and
Speaker 1: so much more. Thank you Aaron Talbert for admitting the
Speaker 1: Ologies podcast Facebook group, with assists from Shannon Felders and
Speaker 1: Bunny Dutch of the comedy podcast You are That Thank
Speaker 1: you Noel Dilworth for all the scheduling. Emily White of
Speaker 1: the Wordery heads up our professional transcripts, which are available
Speaker 1: for free on our website alongside Bleeped episodes by Caleb Patten.
Speaker 1: Those are at alleywoard dot com slash Ologies dash Extras.
Speaker 1: If you have small minds wanting some ologies, you can
Speaker 1: check out Alleyward dot com slash smologies and download those short,
Speaker 1: filth free episodes. Those are suitable for classrooms in all ages.
Speaker 1: Those are headed up by Zike Rodriguez Thomas and Mercedes
Speaker 1: Maitland of mind Jam Media, who are both great, with
Speaker 1: some assists by Stephen Ray Morris, also great. Nick Thorburn
Speaker 1: wrote and performed the theme music, and our lead editor
Speaker 1: is the mayor of Babe Town, shared Sleeper of Mindjam Media.
Speaker 1: Tonight is the Warriors versus Celtics game. My family is
Speaker 1: watching it right now. Warriors are up. I think halftime
Speaker 1: is about to start, so I'm literally recording this in
Speaker 1: the garage. I'm going to race back inside because time
Speaker 1: is of the essence and if you stick around until
Speaker 1: the end of the episode, I tell you a secret.
Speaker 1: And this week I was on a zoom and I
Speaker 1: realized it's really fucking weird to see your own face
Speaker 1: because for every other conversation you don't have to monitor
Speaker 1: your face. And I realized this is not a new
Speaker 1: revelation to have two years into a pandemic, when we've
Speaker 1: been living on this. But on this meeting, I just
Speaker 1: I opened up a note from my notes app on
Speaker 1: my computer, and I just made the window the size
Speaker 1: of my zoom face window, and I just popped it
Speaker 1: right on top of my own face, so I only
Speaker 1: saw everyone else's face. And I just loosened up a bunch,
Speaker 1: and I was like, huh, I feel like myself again,
Speaker 1: just in case anyone is doing a lot of zoom
Speaker 1: meeting still and that helps anyway. Also, I've had this
Speaker 1: Thompson Twins song called lies in my head, but instead
Speaker 1: fly Size, I keep thinking flies, flies flies. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: good luck getting that out of your head. Okay, bye, bye.
Speaker 2: Size.
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