In the United States, there is a fly that lives in a very harsh natural environment, and it can be seen everywhere in Mono Lake, the second largest lake in California. Scientists wonder why flies can live comfortably under water where the salinity is more than twice that of the average seawater, and in such an environment, ordinary organisms cannot survive at all.
Bubble protective film
Now, the secret has finally been solved, and scientists have discovered that flies can automatically generate a protective film of bubbles underwater, covering everything except the eyes. As you can see, this protective film is very delicate and seamless. The first person to record the habits of these flies was the famous American writer Mark Twain, who wrote in his 1872 book "The Gold Rush Years": You can put them underwater if you want, and the flies do not mind, but will feel very proud.
The flies' eyes are not covered
Scientists Michael Dickinson and Floris Bullerher from the California Institute of Technology have studied the fly in depth. They say the flies live in saltwater watersheds at different concentrations and are much more powerful than other species of flies in terms of their ability to keep their bodies dry and escape water when they enter high concentrations of sodium carbonate solutions (Lake Mono is known to have large amounts of sodium carbonate).
Dickinson said they used an electron microscope to look at the flies' epidermis and found that there was a waxy layer of hydrocarbons on its surface, which contained a large number of negatively charged particles, while the lake water was positively charged, and because of this, the flies could create a protective film of electrical energy barrier.
Common flies
Zoe Simmons, a biologist from oxford's Museum of Natural History, points out that the protective film of the fly's epidermis is not indestructible, and that in the case of particularly high sodium carbonate levels, the bubble protective film can be destroyed. This suggests that if the salinity of Mono Lake suddenly rises in a short period of time, the species may be at risk of extinction.