Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) believe they solved the puzzle regarding the fly’s ability to leap before being hit.

Led by Michael Dickinson, the U.S. researchers believe the fly's aptitude to dodge before being swat is on account of its speedy acting brain and a capacity to plan ahead, BBC reported.

Using high-speed digital video to record the slippery schemes of the insects, they found that the best way to swat them is “not to swat at the fly’s starting position, but rather to aim a bit forward of that to anticipate where the fly is going to jump when it first sees your swatter,” Dickinson said.

Long before the fly jumps and makes itself uncatchable, it evaluates the site of the danger and finds a run away plan in the blink of an eye. As a reflex action, it puts its small body intro pre-flight mode – in 100 milliseconds of catching sight of the swatter, and, due to the ability to place its centre of mass in the right way, the fly leaps immediately, by a simple extension of its legs.

As stated by Professor Michael Dickinson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, this demonstrates the amazing speed and complexity of the insect’s brain.

“When the fly makes planning movements prior to takeoff, it takes into account its body position at the time it first sees the threat,” the professor said. “The fly somehow ‘knows’ whether it needs to make large or small postural changes to reach the correct preflight posture.”

The findings of the study have been published in the journal Current Biology.