Skip to main content
flies

Biology's Jessica Fox explains why houseflies can be hard to swat

MEDIA | January 21, 2021
STORY BY: EDITORIAL STAFF

Why are flies so hard to swat?

NPRJessica Fox, associate professor in the Department of Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences, explained one of the reasons the common housefly is so difficult to swat sometimes: the “halteres”—evolutionary remnants of wings which not only generate lift for the fly, but also function as sensory organs to warn the fly of an imminent swat.