Comments on: The world’s smallest fly probably decapitates really tiny ants

By: ControlTheBugs

ControlTheBugs — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:41:05 +0000

That might be one of the craziest thin I have ever read. I wonder if we will find out that there are smaller flies than phorids in 10 – 20 years!?

By: caleb

caleb — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:24:21 +0000

Wow i’m speechless that is nuts! Whats even crazier is the wasp page you link to at the bottom.

By: Simon K

Simon K — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:13:07 +0000

Jonathan Swift had it right* nearly 200 years ago:

“So nat’ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite ‘em,
And so proceed ”ad infinitum”.”

* For a certain value of “right”, though it probably wouldn’t pass peer review.

By: mfumbesi

mfumbesi — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 06:25:57 +0000

So the struggles of life goes both ways. The elephant is very large and as an adult escapes predation from lions, and these tiny ants were hopping to achieve the same feat by going the other way, but alas the race is possible not won. There is an even smaller predator. You have to love how life desperately tries to cling on.

Thanks for this, as always learned something new Today.

By: Bill Cartauld

Bill Cartauld — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:10:36 +0000

TINY ALIENS!!!!
Quick, destroy them now before they evolve into horrible egg-laying-down-human-throat varmints!

By: natselrox

natselrox — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:26:58 +0000

Take that Ampulex compressa!

I love this part: “Brown named it Euryplatea nanaknihali after Nanak Nihal Weiss, a young boy from Brown’s home town in Los Angeles. Weiss is an entomology fanatic and Brown hopes that the name will help to keep his interest for years to come.”

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:43:06 +0000

Incredible. I wonder if even smaller parasites harass the fly in a macabre game of Russian dolls played out in the microscopic undergrowth of Thailand.