Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly (Rhaphiomidas terminatus abdominalis). This unique species, native to the Inland Empire of southern California, is on the brink of extinction as the irreplaceable habitat it calls home disappears. The Delhi Sands flower-loving fly is the first and only fly whose extinction has worried many biologists around the world.
The Delhi Sands habitats are highly unusual and are not found anywhere else on earth. Protection of the fly is important because it will protect many other species also living in the dunes. These dunes support birds like the western meadowlark and the burrowing owl, mammals like the Los Angeles pocket mouse, a tiny buff-colored creature that fits easily in the palm of your hand, insects such as a subspecies of the Mormon metalmark butterfly (Apodemia mormo nigrescens), as well as numerous reptiles and plants. Scientists have compared the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly to a flagship for the whole Delhi Sands ecosystem: “As long as the fly remains alive, the rest of its habitat does, too”.
The protection and preservation of this fly is extremely important for several reasons.
But this is extremely difficult, since the fly has been accused several times that the economies of Los Angeles and the whole of California, one of the richest states in the world, suffer because of it. Due to the high prices of land and real estate, it is very difficult for influential and wealthy people to find cheap land for the construction of new shopping centers. Rich people and influential investors want quick results, they do not want to invest in promising long-term projects that are much more useful for society than shopping malls. Rich people and influential investors also do not want to deal with the troubled neighborhoods of Los Angeles and other ghettos of California.
If it were not for the fly, many lands would have been destroyed, and along with these lands, many other species of living beings, for the construction of shopping centers that people had to visit, most of whom do not wash clothes, but only throw away and buy new ones.
Do you consider it important to preserve a fly that certainly LOVES FLOWERS EVEN MORE THAN WOMEN LOVES FLOWERS, which preserves an entire ecosystem, which changes the economy of one of the most influential states in the world, forcing the richest people and the most influential investors in the world to look for other business projects? Do you consider it important to preserve a fly that which changes the idea of the importance of all insects and which changes people's thinking and attitude to flies forcing them to see not parasites, but saviors?