The
face of the blue bottle fly (Calliphora vomitoria). New research shows
how this carrion-eater carries the mammals of the forest in his stomach.
Photo by: J.J. Harrison.
Last year scientists released a study
that is likely to revolutionize how conservationists track elusive
species. Researchers extracted the recently sucked blood of terrestrial
leeches in Vietnam's remote Annamite Mountains and looked at the DNA of
what they'd been feeding on: remarkably researchers were able to
identify a number of endangered and rarely-seen mammals. In fact two of
the species gleaned from these blood-meals had been discovered by
scientists as late as the 1990s. In the past, trying to find rare and
shy jungle animals required many man hours and a lot of funding. While
the increasing use of remote camera traps has allowed scientists to
expand their search, DNA sampling from leeches could be the next big
step in simplifying (and cheapening) the quest for tracking the world's
mammals. But now a new study in Molecular Ecology adds another twist: flies.
