Scientists have discovered a new species of fly in Central Park with an unusual sexual fetish. One of the new species’ distinguishing features is a decidedly “kinky” and unusual mating behavior. Here are all the details.
Well, we love to be groundbreaking here in New York City. Not only are we the birthplace of fashion trends, music genres and commonly used slang, we have also birthed our own sex-fetish breed of fly found nowhere else in the world. Congratulations, we did it.
New York’s Central Park is the home of our new genus of the fly where it has been hiding in plain sight for some time, where it lives on duck droppings. How did it “fly” under the radar (sorry, couldn’t resist)? A specimen of the animal was originally collected in 2007 but was misidentified as a member of a known species. The species, dubbed Themira lohmanus, was named after David Lohman, an entomologist at the City College of New York.
Themira lohmanus is unique to the city and has only ever been found in Central Park and Prospect Park. A study on the fly published in the journal ZooKeys outlines the nature of the fly’s weird sex life:
“The species breeds on waterfowl dung and it is hypothesized that this makes the species rare in natural environments. However, it thrives in urban parks where the public feeds ducks and geese.”
National University of Singapore evolutionary biologist Yuchen Ang led the team of researchers that analyzed the fly and its mating behaviors. They determined that Themira lohmanus was, in fact, a new species and described the fly’s mating ritual “kinky.”
It seems nothing is safe in this city, we can even turn our houseflies into sexual deviants. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Featured image source [Roy Niswanger | Flickr]