Paul Farnfield / Alamy Some flies have specialised hindwings to help them take off faster, making them harder to swat. Many flies can be notoriously hard to catch. They manage to dodge incoming hazards by taking off from a standing position in a fraction of a second. Advertisement They primarily use sight to escape danger, but Alexandra Yarger at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, and her team have found a new mechanism that might be helping them get away. All fly species have shortened hindwings called halteres. These don’t generate useful lift, but are used as sensory organs for balance to help stabilise the insect while in flight.