Art gift 103. The common housefly is thought of as a pest and disease carrier, but they are much more than that. They evolved 60 million years before humans, so they knows a thing or two about life. This female can walk on smooth walls, even on ceilings, thanks to the tiny claws and sticky pads on her feet. Receptors on her legs let her taste things just by walking on them. Her big eyes have 4000 facets, so she see things from thousands of slightly different angles at once. And she processes visual information seven times faster than humans, so it’s like everything around her is moving in slow-motion. No wonder it’s hard to catch a fly! Houseflies don’t bite—they can’t even chew. Their mouths are like vacuum cleaners. They mix solid food with saliva and suck it up like a smoothie. In the course of her short life, a female will lay about nine thousands eggs, in batches of about 100 at a time. Those eggs, and the larvae that hatch from them, are important, nutritious food for other small creatures, and do good work in the environment digesting rotting waste. The common housefly is by no means endangered—in fact, a world thrown out of balance by mass extinction could kill off creatures that depend on her larvae for sustenance, which means houseflies may thrive far more than humans as the climate catastrophe unfolds. There’s still a lot we can do to avert the worst of the potential damage. Toward that end… . I’m making seven 4 x 6” archival prints of this beauty. The first is going to a someone who already contributed to my fundraiser for Friends of the Earth ( @friends_earth ), the second goes to my nephew’s bug book. (See previous post.) The rest will go to anyone giving $10 or more by clicking the Donate link in this Insta post. Message me your address and I’ll mail you a print as my thank you gift. . . . #insects #housefly #flies #insectart #artivism #bugs #drawing #insectdrawing #drawingoftheday #digitaldrawing #procreate #procreateart #digitalart #wildlife #massextinction #artivist #artdaily #drawingbugs #insectos #inspiredbynature #insectsofinstagram #nature #naturelover #beauty #inspiration #naturalworld #flyingbugs #insekten #natura #climatechange https://www.instagram.com/p/CMxIHTjn264/?igshid=1n52ej801xqgg
