Insect Evolution

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'Pet Fly' refers to a little joke I played on Kootch this morning. A fly has been flying around the apartment for two days now, and it finally came across Kootch and annoyed her. Kootch complained to me and I told her that it was a family pet and don't worry about it. Kootch did not like the idea of 'fly as family pet' and threatened to locate the fly swatter and do her duty.

Later at lunch I asked Kootch whether she had done the fly in and she replied that she had not seen it recently. I then suggested that what we had here before our very eyes was an example of Evolution in Action. Kootch was nonplussed of course.

I explained to her that the fly had obviously heard her threat to 'get the fly swatter' and had taken evasive action. I further explained that over the last several hundred years flys had learned a bit of English by Natural Selection: flys who understood the words 'fly swatter' had taken flight so to say and lived long enough to pass their genes on whereas flys who did not understand those words had perished and had not passed their genes on.

Kootch didn't buy it.