Flies are not the smartest creatures in the world. They buzz into bug zappers and have tiny brains. But despite their lack of intelligence, flies can always seem to escape your attempts to swat them. Ever feel like you’re moving in slow motion? Well, from a fly’s perspective, you are.

Time is experienced differently by each species, and this difference is due to the differences in sight. Our brains receive individual images from our eyes and piece them together to form a seamless movie. This is known as the “flicker-fusion frequency.”

Flicker-fusion frequency is measured by flashing a light at increasingly fast speeds and recording the signals sent from the photoreceptors in an animal’s eyes. Humans have a flicker-fusion frequency of 60 flashes per second, while flies have a rate of 250 flashes per second, making them four times faster than us. In fact, most flying animals, including vertebrates, have faster vision than humans as quick reaction times are crucial for avoiding obstacles.

However, there’s one fly that outclasses even its own species – the killer fly. This predatory insect has light-detecting cells in its eyes that contain more mitochondria, giving it supercharged vision. Time moves six times slower for the killer fly than it does for us humans.

This raises the question: can people experience time differently based on their flicker-fusion frequency? Some evidence suggests that children experience time differently than adults, with their flicker-fusion frequency being faster. Andrew Jackson, an associate professor at Trinity College Dublin, believes that flicker-fusion frequency is related to a person’s subjective perception of time and changes with age.

So the next time you try to swat a fly, remember that you’re not just facing a slow-moving insect, but a whole different perspective on time.

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