Hi Deep Look and KQED Science Fans, Meet the Jacques Cousteau of flies — the alkali fly! To film these unusual flies, I took a road trip to Mono Lake, California, east of Yosemite National Park, with Deep Look’s lead producer and cinematographer, Josh Cassidy, and naturalist Nora Livingston. We found Mono Lake to be a truly otherworldly place, surrounded by tall towers of calcium carbonate called tufas. The lake’s water is three times saltier than the Pacific Ocean, making it an extreme environment for most aquatic life. The alkali fly is an extremophile, one of only a few creatures that can survive in the lake. (The other two are brine shrimp and a microscopic worm.) See how this fly covers itself in a shiny, protective air bubble and dives in the lake’s harsh waters in our video and this week’s newsletter.
This Daring Fly Swims in a Shimmering Bubble Shield
Thanks to unique adaptations, the remarkable alkali fly remains dry while embarking on a quest for tasty algae and a place to lay its eggs in California’s Mono Lake.
The Neck delves into evolutionary time to solve a living paradox—why is our neck so central to our survival and culture, but so vulnerable to injury and disease? Biologist Kent Dunlap shows how the neck's vulnerability is not simply an unfortunate quirk of evolution. Learn more at ucpress.edu.
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Tourists visiting Yosemite National Park, on Aug. 3, 2022.(Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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🧂 Alkali flies are covered in a waxy substance that helps them withstand the high concentrations of table salt, baking soda and soda ash in Mono Lake. 💭 An alkali fly also has an impressive amount of hair, which helps it capture air to form a protective air bubble. 🤿 Once the air bubble is formed, the fly can dive underwater for a limited time. 🥦 The alkali fly loves slurping up algae at the ultra salty watery base of Mono Lake’s tufas, which are towers of limestone deposits formed over hundreds of years. The fly is the only insect that thrives here! 🐛 When it's in the larval stage, the alkali fly can live in the lake's harsh water without a protective bubble. It gets oxygen through its skin and has special kidneys called lime glands, which pump excess salts out of its body.
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Name That Critter!
During hurricane season, as floodwater flows into their nest, these insects build a terrifying raft – out of their own interlocking bodies. If you wade into this raft nightmare, you’ll likely get a vicious bite and sting. What are they? Find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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From left to right: Rosa Tuirán, Deep Look producer, and naturalist Nora Livingston stand near one of the tall limestone towers on the shores of Mono Lake, California, in June 2023. This was Rosa’s first time producing a Deep Look episode, and thanks to her diligent preproduction work and the keen eye of lead producer and cinematographer Josh Cassidy, they were able to spot and film alkali flies doing what they do best. Join Deep Look’s Patreon today for as little as $3 per month and help us to keep making fascinating videos about the tiny dramas playing out every day in the natural world. Plus, depending on your level of support, you’ll get more behind-the-scenes stories and exclusive swag, like T-shirts, stickers and more!
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ANSWER TO NAME THAT CRITTER
Fire ants! During hurricane season, as residents of states like Florida, Texas, Louisiana and South Carolina escape rising waters, they sometimes have the added misfortune of wading into large groups of floating red fire ants that have assembled into a raft. Find out more in our video: Fire Ants Turn Into a Stinging Life Raft to Survive Floods
