Differences between forest and desert flies could help explain how climate change impacts insects.
Differences between forest and desert flies could help explain how climate change impacts insects.
Tiny, cold-blooded animals like flies depend on their environment to regulate body temperature, making them ideal “canaries in the mine” for gauging the impact of climate change on the behavior and distribution of animal species. Yet, scientists know relatively little about how insects sense and respond to temperature.
Using two species of flies from different climates — one from the cool, high-altitude forests of Northern California, the other hailing from the hot, dry deserts of the Southwest (both cousins of the common laboratory fly, drosophila melanogaster) — Northwestern University scientists discovered remarkable differences in the way each processes external temperature.
Read more at Northwestern University
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