

The most exciting part was the Flies' Birthday. We didn't see the flies' first birthday (when they hatched from the egg). But we did get to see them hatching from the pupa. It was a phenomenal experience. We were all very exhilarated. Ms Cochrane and Britni photographed the entire hatching of one fly.
|
|
When the pupae hatch, they break out head first. They don't have hands, teeth or beaks, so they have to use their heads. It usually takes about 15 minutes. |
|
|
The head is soft and moves into different shapes. This picture shows a nose-like thing that poked in and out. It helped him push out of his shell. |
|
|
This is the back. You can see his eyes and two wings crumpled up. He stayed like this for almost 2 hours. He was very tired and wasn't able to get out. |
|
|
He's half way out. The thing sticking off his back is a little wing. The wings will uncrumple after he hatches. He went to the computer room with us while we typed up our fly research projects. |
|
|
Here we just got him out. Ms Cochrane used a needle and picked at the pupa. She performed her first Caesarean Section! He was able to wriggle out then. He was exhausted. It had taken 2 hours. We found two flies later that died while hatching. |
|
|
We called him Sticky Feet because he had white stuff all over his feet which made them stuck together. It probably stuck him inside the pupa too. Ms Cochrane picked it off with the needle. |
|
|
Victor suggested that the white stuff was from the larva when it turned into a pupa. We thought that was a good hypothesis. The fly didn't walk right away. He was laying on his back with his feet up. He looked dead. But eventually he started to walk. After a day he flew. |
|
|
He survived! Britni and Ms Cochrane saved a life! They're heroes! Ms Cochrane felt very maternal towards that fly. We were all delighted that he survived. (We hope it wasn't him that got stepped on a few days later!) |
We were so excited when the new flies were released by our principal!

Here are some of our Fly Birth Announcements.