Alkali fly
The alkali fly is a small dark fly that can go diving. It wraps itself in a shiny bubble of air and walks down underwater rocks to look for food. When it comes back up, it is completely dry.
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Fun facts
Waxy little hairs on its body hold the air bubble in place, like a tiny diving suit.
It can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes and dive more than 7 metres deep.
A grown-up alkali fly lives only 3 to 5 days.
Its larvae live underwater the whole time until they become flies.
Long ago, the Kucadikadi people at Mono Lake collected the pupae and dried them for food. Their name means eaters of the brine fly pupae.
Most asked questions about Alkali fly
?How does the alkali fly breathe underwater?
It carries a bubble of air around its body, held in place by waxy hairs.
?Where does the alkali fly live?
At salty lakes in western North America, especially Mono Lake in California.
?How big is an alkali fly?
It is only about 4 to 7 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ephydra hians
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Ephydridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Ephydridae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Ephydra hians (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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