1) In 2008 I observed something extraordinary, which totally changed my perception of all life. I observed hoverflies carefully and deliberately opening up the anthers of a flower and scooping the pollens grains out of the anthers to their mouthparts with their front feet. 
2) Until this point in time I wrongly assumed flies just crudely prodded around in a flower drinking nectar and hovering up any pollen. But the way these hoverflies were going about it was very systematic and they were using their front feet in coordination with their mouthparts.
3) You do not think of an organism like a fly, of having the awareness, focus and coordination to navigate it's way around a flower like this, then to deliberately open up the anther of the flower containing the pollen and to scoop it towards their mouthparts.
4) Whilst you cannot see it here, the hoverflies were opening up the anthers with the skill of a surgeon. They knew exactly what they were doing. We're taught to believe that only higher vertebrates feed like this.
5) If flies have this sense of purpose and awareness of what they are doing, being able to coordinate several body parts to complete a complex task, how mistaken are we about the cognitive abilities of non-human life, especially organisms we regards as much less able and simple?
6) Unfortunately, whilst my photos are in chronological order they are not at consistent time intervals, so the coordination of what was happening isn't clear from the photos and this was at a time before video in DSLRs was a feature.
7) I did something quite contrary to macro photography convention of the time. Instead of focusing on the eyes and head of the hoverfly I focused on the front "feet" and mouthparts i.e. what was going on.
8) The hoverfly in the photo is I believe Heliophilus pendulus (corrections on ID welcome) and the flower was Meadow Cranesbill (Geranium pratense). Although there were other species of hoverfly feeding similarly.
9) 2 things allowed me this observation of what is usually not possible to observe in detail. Firstly it was quite cold in late September, meaning the pollinators didn't fly off, and allowed me to open up the flower and poke my lens in it whilst they were feeding.
10) Secondly I was using the unique @CanonUKandIE MP-E 65mm 1-5x time lens, with a much higher magnification range than any other macro lens. In addition I was experimenting with a 1.4x teleconverter, which gives about 7x magnification, about the limit of handholdability.
11) The Canon MT24EX macro flash I was using has a built in focusing light you can switch on with a half press of the shutter button. So combined I had the opportunity to see something clearly that very few people have ever seen or observed.
12) Normally it would be impossible to look inside a flower from this distance at what a fly was doing when it fed, because the fly would either stop feeding or simply fly off. However, because of the cold weather and their need to feed, they had to ignore this nosey ape.
13) Again I can't overstate the complexity of the task for these flies. The internal parts of the flowers are not all the same, and to get at the anthers means navigating their way around the inside of a flower, where each individual flower is different in the challenge it poses.
14) Not only are the internal parts of flowers different from species to species, but the angle at which this parts lie in each flower of the same species is not the same because they are floppy, and the position they are in is down to gravity and the angle of the flower head.
15) What I'm getting at is this cannot be achieved by some simple programmed behaviour, but the fly must adapt it's approach in each flower, intelligently. It would be very difficult to create a robot with this adaptability, dexterity, purpose and focus.
16) Of course many people are probably thinking so what? So what if a fly can do this, what's the big deal? The big deal is our attitude to the natural world, where we think we are so superior and have a false view of our own abilities, whilst being ignorant.
17) We flippantly destroy the natural world. We destroy great swathes of wildflowers that are essential forage, food, for pollinators, which supply us with much of our food, because we say they are "just" weeds. "Just" "bugs", they are nothing.
nerc.ukri.org/planetearth/st…
nerc.ukri.org/planetearth/st…
18) Nothing, certainly no natural organism is "just" anything. The commonest plants we disdainfully call "weeds" have complex biochemical and quantum processes, beyond what our very best technology can achieve. Even beyond what we can comprehend. We arrogantly destroy it.
19) Our disdainful attitude to the vast complexity and majesty of the natural world, biodiversity and ecological processes that sustain is is hubris, arrogance and ignorance of the highest order.
20) Our civilization has set itself on a course for global suicide and the destruction of much of the life on Earth, and currently most people are too stupid and ignorant to realise where we are heading because we wrongly perceive ourselves as so superior.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
theguardian.com/environment/20…
I want to clarify that I'm not saying most people are stupid per se i.e. they're not inherently stupid. I'm saying that currently most people are behaving in a stupid way by ignoring this crisis i.e. it's something that can be remedied if they perceive the situation correctly.
This led to me paying more attention to how pollinators actually fed, such as Rhingia campestris and it's incredibly long and complex feeding apparatus, which all packs away under it's snout.
This is how it can use this apparatus. Notice how it twists and corkscrews. How it has rasps to remove and collect pollen.
