You will be surprised if you know what this hair is really!

When you are an insect of a size smaller than a salt crystal, the physical world around you will become extremely strange.

Please look carefully at this picture, and guess what it is? The slightest hint is that it belongs to the world's smallest family of insects .

Looking at this feather, you guess what it is?

Have you guessed it yet? If not, it will not let you wait too long, the answer is the wing, a typical wing of the Mymaridae family , namely the Mymar fly. This is a family of insects consisting of very small species with an average body size of only 0.5-1 mm.

First flies of the genus Mymar, family Mymaridae.

But if you notice, you will find that the wings are somewhat strange. It's different from any wing you've ever seen - from birds to dragonflies and ordinary flies - none of them are like that. Even looking over, whoever thinks it is a wing.

So with wings that don't look like this wing, what kind of flight do they fly?

First of all, remember that they are microscopic flies, including species just like a . salt crystal. So in fact, those wings are a great adaptation of the fairy flies, so they can fly with their tiny bodies.

The wings of species such as birds, bats, or bees all have a common and fragile feature. They help increase the air exposure area and create lift when flapping so that these species fly up. However, this conventional aerodynamic feature will not be applicable to fairies, because they are so small that the air around them becomes thick, like syrup.

Comparison between fairy wings (left) and dragonfly wings (right).

To make it easier to imagine, for example, with water, at the size of a human being, water is very thin. We can easily dip ourselves into the water tank and stand up without problems. But with an insect like ant, when a drop of water falls into it, they will drown in it and cannot escape.

Because the smaller the size, the stronger the attraction of the water molecules, making a drop of water become thick and sticky with insects.

Flying to the first fly will now look like "swimming" in a more colloidal solution.

Return to the fairy. With their size just the size of their salt crystals, even air doesn't behave in the usual way we know. You will feel your body sink in an air "sea syrup", literally!

Flying to fairies will now be more like "swimming" in a colloid rather than elegant birds. They must use their strength to pull and pull into the air to move.

The long hairs at the tip of the wing work to reduce turbulence and increase traction when flying.

Therefore, the wings of these species have transformed into a long shape and are thin like a paddle, but very strong to be able to beat up to hundreds of times per second. The long hairs at the tip of the wing work to reduce turbulence and increase traction when flying.

All of these evolutionary traits seem at first glance strange to a wing, but that's because we are judging from the perspective of a "giant" person. As for flies, these wings are really convenient, and it doesn't need anything else.

So just see, the natural world is strange. A strange pair of wings that could fly.