Evolution in 10 years, not millions

[DrLeftover]

To hide themselves from deadly flies, crickets on two Hawaiian islands have evolved an inability to sing.

Ten years ago, two years apart, males appeared on Kauai and Oahu with altered wings, which they would normally rub together to chirp and attract females.

New findings published in the journal Current Biology show that the wing changes are physically different and arose from separate mutations.

This makes the silent crickets a brand new example of "convergent evolution".

The killer flies have an unusual ability to pinpoint a cricket's location using sound.

After finding its victim - a male cricket, singing to attract a mate - a pregnant fly will spray baby maggots onto the cricket's back, which burrow in, feed, and emerge a week later leaving the husk of the hapless cricket behind.

The presence of these North American flies placed the crickets, themselves relatively recent arrivals from Australia, under pressure to adapt.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27592656