this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 51 minutes ago* (last edited 49 minutes ago)

Reminds me of the old joke, what do you call a fly with no wings?

A walk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 55 minutes ago

time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

[–] [email protected] 1 points 52 minutes ago

Where my cheeky FlyNap sniffers at?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

They’re called fruit flies because they gather around rotting fruit.

But there are also “true fruit flies” which do eat fruit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 43 minutes ago

They're generally called vinegar flies, and they don't infest fresh fruit like fruit flies do when they lay their eggs in fruit.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 hours ago

You already know what you call a fly with no wings

A walk

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Are horseflies a lie because they don't eat horses?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 minutes ago

Ok let me introduce you to the barn owl

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

But they do? Along with any other animal that happens to be nearby.

That is the one insect I will go out of my way to kill.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Without a lie they'd just be horsefs

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 hours ago

No it's because they take a horse sized chunk out of you when they bite you

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I wish I had the time and money to create crimes against nature.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

Don't you drive a car?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Can somebody explain the fruit thing? I've seen fruit flies demolish fresh fruit. The amount of yeast biomass on them must be negligible at that point. Do the eggs/larvae spread the yeast before they start eating?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

There's even the old Marx brothers joke "time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana"

The fruit fly trap taught to me by an entomologist friend is baited with wine, suggesting the fruit flies want fermenting fruit

The trap: get a plastic fizzy drink bottle; bigger is better

Cut off the top. The cut piece is a cone

Place the cone (the top piece) upside down on the rest of the bottle

Sticky tape the joint

Bait with cheap wine or leftover wine or beer. The bait is poured down the funnel into the trap

Her tastes were revealed in the description of baiting the trap — she specified red wine, but I have tested with various booze and fruit flies have no taste, they'll go for anything. You could probably extract bait from the sourdough starter you made in lockdown and kept alive despite never making bread after that first try

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Doesn't even have to be actual booze. Apple cider vinegar + a drop of dawn dish soap works a treat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 minutes ago

I guess not everyone has easy access to booze

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

The fruit flies you've seen eating fresh fruit are probably Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing fruit fly). Most (all?) other Drosophila species (including the model organism Drosophila melanogaster) only feed on rotting fruit. Though they'll consume the sugars too, not just the microorganisms. So standard lab diets include sugar along with yeast and often cornmeal.

There are also some more distantly related flies that feed on fresh fruit and are commonly called fruit flies, eg Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 hours ago

I’m sure the meme is apocryphal, and it’s not entirely correct. Fruit flies do eat yeast, yes…but they also eat the sugars in the fermenting fruit, not just the microorganisms causing fruit decay. I don’t know about the larvae at all, though.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 13 hours ago (7 children)

What other lies have we been told? Does time not fly like an arrow?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Mosquito hawks do not, in fact, eat mosquitos.

I no longer respect those annoying fuckers.

[–] [email protected] 96 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (5 children)

Emperor penguins and king penguins are not descendants of any royal bloodlines and do not have an understanding of monarchical governments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

What the fuck...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Better yet, they aren't actually penguins - they were just called that because they resembled real penguins.

Which are literally dead today, because they dared live close to humans.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

because they dared live close to humans.

Poor dumb bastards.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Gray Knights have been dispatched to your location, please stand by.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 hours ago

Awesome, this daemon infestation on my computer (Gentoo of course) is really starting to annoy me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Don't even mention macaroni penguins...so disappointing.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Nah, it just trips into the future

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Trippin', trippin', trippin'

[–] [email protected] 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Someone tell this guy about Jeremy bearimy and timey wimey space stuff

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

A time, B time, and lunch time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

A man in a very tight suit with a blue box once told me it's more wibbly-wobbly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Was he gender, species, and time fluid?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

All the fluids. Except water on Mars, he didn't like that one bit.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Earthlings don't eat Earth either. They're still Earthlings.

Sperm whales don't eat sperm.

Mayflies don't eat May or any other month.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago

W wait a s second! What do sperm wales eat? Have I been pointlessly jacking off into the ocean for decades??

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Earthlings don't eat earth because "earth" isn't something to be eaten. Sperm whales don't eat sperm because sperm is (usually) not something to be eaten.

Fruit, however, is supposed to be eaten, and by many, many animals. By calling something a fruit fly, the expectation for most people would be that its diet consists mainly of fruit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Like Fruit Bats.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Or ya know, that they're usually found hanging around near fruit.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Dobsonflies don't even eat Dobson!

What a world

[–] [email protected] 1 points 40 minutes ago

Inflammable means flammable?! What a country!

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