Zombie Dung Fly

A wonderful haul of wildlife shots for me today. In the end I have posted subjects that I have never seen or photographed before.

When I first spotted the above I thought it was a fly with an unlikely pink abdomen. On closer inspection I could see that it was a dung fly that had been attacked by an insect-eating pink fungus which I now know is Entomophthora. Other flies which come to investigate become contaminated with sticky spores that then germinate and penetrate the body of the new host. As the pathogen proliferates and begins to digest the flies, they weaken, suffering a prolonged, gruesome, fate. In their final hours the flies become zombies as the fungus takes control of their nervous system and compels them to climb towards the light until they reach the top of grass stems – where they are conspicuously positioned, wings open, for passing on the infection to another generation.


At Fishers Green this afternoon we walked through swarms of mayflies and clouds of goat willow seeds and spotted an unusual duck. (Extras) I think it might be a relative of the infamous ruddy duck, an Argentine lake duck, which has the longest penis in the bird world. (Most birds don't have penises.) Evidently these ducks use their penises, which are corkscrew-shaped and longer than their own bodies, to lasso the females!