Study: Fruit flies have stabilizer reflex

The researchers said they determined the fruit flies use an automatic stabilizer reflex that helps them recover with precision from midflight stumbles.

The scientists led by doctoral candidate Leif Ristroph and Assistant Professor Itai Cohen used high-speed video cameras to record the insects in flight.

The researchers said they glued tiny magnets to the backs of flies sedated by a dunk into ice water. When the insect came to and flew around, the researchers turned on magnetic fields that zapped the magnets, nudging the insect off its flight path.

They found the insects paddled their wings to steer, delicately adjusting the inclination of their wings by miniscule amounts at a remarkable rate of 250 times a second.

Thus, the insects took the disturbance in stride, quickly recovering their original posture with pinpoint accuracy.

"The ability to control flight profoundly changed the evolution of our planet," said Cohen. "About 350 million years ago, the world was devoid of the many trees and flowers of today. Once insects figured out how to maneuver through the air, these pollinators enabled the Earth to blossom with life."

The study is detailed in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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