Botfly Debunked

The deer botfly (Cephenomyia pratti Hunter) is a small, blunt-headed insect which sprays its eggs into the nostrils and throats of deer, scattering them like tiny bombs while on the wing. In scientific journals as well as the lay press, the botfly has been widely publicized as the fastest thing on earth. It has been credited with speeds over 800 m.p.h.--faster than the fastest airplanes (over 400 m.p.h.), than the fastest birds (over 100 m.p.h.), than the fastest land animal, the cheetah (70 m.p.h.). Most of this publicity seems to have sprung from the reports of Dr. Charles Henry Tyler Townsend, 74, an Ohio-born entomologist who now lives in Brazil. Although the flight of botflies was visible to Dr. Townsend only as a "brownish blur," he estimated their speeds at 400 yards per second (818 m.p.h.).

Ever since he read a newspaper editorial on the small speedster some time ago, Dr. Irving Langmuir, General Electric Co.'s Nobel Prizewinning research ace, has doubted that it could fly anywhere near as fast as it was billed. Recently, with characteristic thoroughness. Dr. Langmuir set out to debunk the botfly; last week he published his findings in Science.

Dr. Langmuir, having studied ballistics formulae, showed that if the botfly flew at 800 m.p.h. the wind pressure against its head would be 8 Ib. per sq. in., "probably enough to crush the fly." The power needed to maintain such a velocity would be 370 watts or about one-half horsepower --which is, as Dr. Langmuir exclaims, "a good deal for a fly!" Also, the fuel requirement would be so high that the insect would have to consume more than its own weight of food every second.

In the Adirondacks, Dr. Langmuir was struck by insects which he admitted hit him harder than any others he ever felt. Someone told him that these were the famed deer botflies. The scientist estimated that if the flies were traveling at 800 m.p.h. the force of the impact would amount to 310 pounds and that they would penetrate deeply into human flesh-- whereas, in reality, they bounced off the skin after the collision.

Dr. Langmuir clinched his argument by making an artificial botfly of solder (one centimetre long, one-half centimetre thick), whirling this on a string in such a way that he could time its velocity with a telechron clock. At 13 m.p.h. the path of the artificial fly was already a blur, at 26 m.p.h. it was barely visible, at 43 m.p.h. the direction of rotation could not be told, and at 64 m.p.h. the object was entirely invisible. Comparing the appearance of his artificial fly while in motion with Dr. Townsend's descriptions. Dr. Langmuir concluded that a good estimate of the deer botfly's speed was 25 m.p.h.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.