(Credit: Stanislav Gorb)
A scanning electron microscope provided this remarkable close up view of a housefly’s foot. The fly can clasp on to difficult perches with the wicked little claws–which explains some of the remarkable places flies are able to alight. Additionally, surface tension provided by the innumerable tiny hairs on the two off-white pads allows the fly to hold up its weight on smooth surfaces. Some of the tiny hairs are actually sensory organs by which the fly “tastes” whatever it has landed on. The spiky yellow balls are grains of pollen which have stuck to the fly.
ferrebeekeeper 
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 13, 2010 at 9:30 PM
Christine
Wow. Way to make flies seem way grosser than they already are.
July 15, 2010 at 6:59 PM
Hieronymo
Yes, it’s a horrid little hoof, but the fly’s tendency to flit from a nightsoil midden onto one’s flapjacks is still the grossest aspect of the creature–well, aside from baby flies (aka maggots).