› added 6 years ago

333

TIL that every Autumn a fungus epidemic kills off 75% of house flies. It attacks their brain forcing them to land on a surface and climb to the highest point, stand up on its front legs and spread its wings. The fungus then erupts from its abdomen to be spread to other flies.

Read more biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu

via reddit.com

6E7yJ TIL Pompeii had snack bars that are likened to fast food restaurants. A 2,000-year-old uncovered thermopolium features colorful frescoes - one is of a sea nymph, but the other is of a worker in a snack-bar environment and is thought to be an early form of advertising.
5YrZr TIL Pizza Hut restaurants in China stopped offering one trip salad bars- due to customer's creating elaborately engineered "salad towers" carefully balanced on one plate.
Z89mG TIL Adam Savage and Tory Belleci of Mythbusters worked on the models in the Star Wars Prequels
D19Gp TIL That sign spinning is an actual sport.
Ogje TIL that plants can recognize their siblings and give them preferential treatment, competing less for valuable resources like root space than when surrounded by plants that are strangers.