News Animals

Blowflies use drool to keep their cool

Dangle, slurp, repeat may help the insects protect their brains from overheating

Blowfly

UNUSUALLY COOL  If this blowfly starts overheating, it has a drool, reswallow, repeat  trick for reducing its temperature.

Muhammad Mahdi Karim

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

SAN FRANCISCO — Blowflies don’t sweat, but they have raised cooling by drooling to a high art.

In hot times, sturdy, big-eyed Chrysomya megacephala flies repeatedly release — and then retract — a droplet of saliva, Denis Andrade reported January 4 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.