Images: Fossil Fly Sex

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Fossil Fly Sex

Mating Jurassic flies

(Image credit: Dr. Huang)

A mating pair of strashilids, fossil insects from the Jurassic that resemble modern aquatic flies.

Male Fly

Male fly

(Image credit: Dr. Huang)

A male strashilid fly with grasping limbs from the Jurassic, found in Inner Mongolia.

Male and Female Flies

Male and female strashilid fly illustration

(Image credit: Dr. Huang)

A reconstruction of the male strashilid fly (right) and the female (left).

Winged Male

Male fossil strashilid with large wing.

(Image credit: Dr. Huang)

This fossil strashilid, a male, reveals its large, membranous wing.

Fly Ecology

strashilid fly ecology

(Image credit: Dr. Huang)

This illustration captures the likely ecology of Jurassic strashilids, from the larval stage to winged adulthood. Finally, the flies shed their wings and return to the water to mate and die.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.