scholarly journals Wing damage affects flight kinematics but not flower tracking performance in hummingbird hawkmoths

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. jeb236240
Author(s):  
Klara Kihlström ◽  
Brett Aiello ◽  
Eric Warrant ◽  
Simon Sponberg ◽  
Anna Stöckl

ABSTRACTWing integrity is crucial to the many insect species that spend distinct portions of their life in flight. How insects cope with the consequences of wing damage is therefore a central question when studying how robust flight performance is possible with such fragile chitinous wings. It has been shown in a variety of insect species that the loss in lift-force production resulting from wing damage is generally compensated by an increase in wing beat frequency rather than amplitude. The consequences of wing damage for flight performance, however, are less well understood, and vary considerably between species and behavioural tasks. One hypothesis reconciling the varying results is that wing damage might affect fast flight manoeuvres with high acceleration, but not slower ones. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effect of wing damage on the manoeuvrability of hummingbird hawkmoths (Macroglossum stellatarum) tracking a motorised flower. This assay allowed us to sample a range of movements at different temporal frequencies, and thus assess whether wing damage affected faster or slower flight manoeuvres. We show that hummingbird hawkmoths compensate for the loss in lift force mainly by increasing wing beat amplitude, yet with a significant contribution of wing beat frequency. We did not observe any effects of wing damage on flight manoeuvrability at either high or low temporal frequencies.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klara Kihlström ◽  
Brett Aiello ◽  
Eric J. Warrant ◽  
Simon Sponberg ◽  
Anna Stöckl

The integrity of their wings is crucial to the many insect species that spend distinct portions of their life in flight. How insects cope with the consequences of wing damage is therefore a central question when studying how robust flight performance is possible with such fragile chitinous wings. It has been shown in a variety of insect species that the loss in lift-force production resulting from wing damage is generally compensated by an increase in wing beat frequency rather than amplitude. The consequences of wing damage for flight performance, however, are less well understood, and vary considerably between species and behavioural tasks. One hypothesis reconciling the varying results is that wing damage might affect fast flight manoeuvres with high acceleration, but not slower ones. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effect of wing damage on the manoeuvrability of hummingbird hawkmoths (Macroglossum stellatarum) tracking a motorised flower. This assay allowed us to sample a range of movements at different temporal frequencies, and thus assess whether wing damage affected faster or slower flight manoeuvres. We show that hummingbird hawkmoths compensate for the loss in lift force mainly by increasing wing beat amplitude, yet with a significant contribution of wing beat frequency. We did not observe any effects of wing damage on flight manoeuvrability at either high or low temporal frequencies.


1982 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Ward ◽  
P. S. Baker

AbstractThe flight performance of a laboratory population of Triatoma infestans (Klug) was tested on a flight balance. Bugs adopted a typical flight posture which is described. They were capable of steady flight and produced reasonable amounts of lift. Flight durations were generally short, but capacity for flight rose to a peak in the third week after adult eclosion with the longest recorded flight being one of 2 h 40 min by a male. Sexual differences were slight; males had a slightly higher mean wing-beat frequency (57·8 Hz against 55·6 Hz), and a few more females than males made longer flights. Differences were noted between short and long fliers; the latter producing significantly more lift and showing signs of a flight pattern divisible into rising, steady and falling phases. The short fliers showed only rising and falling phases. Lift and wing-beat frequency were correlated, but it is evident that lift also depends on other variables such as stroke-plane angle, body angle and wing-beat amplitude, which are discussed.


Apidologie ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio R. S. Parmezan ◽  
Vinicius M. A. Souza ◽  
Indrė Žliobaitė ◽  
Gustavo E. A. P. A. Batista

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1612) ◽  
pp. 913-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B Srygley

Many unpalatable butterfly species use coloration to signal their distastefulness to birds, but motion cues may also be crucial to ward off predatory attacks. In previous research, captive passion-vine butterflies Heliconius mimetic in colour pattern were also mimetic in motion. Here, I investigate whether wing motion changes with the flight demands of different behaviours. If birds select for wing motion as a warning signal, aposematic butterflies should maintain wing motion independently of behavioural context. Members of one mimicry group ( Heliconius cydno and Heliconius sapho ) beat their wings more slowly and their wing strokes were more asymmetric than their sister-species ( Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius erato , respectively), which were members of another mimicry group having a quick and steady wing motion. Within mimicry groups, wing beat frequency declined as its role in generating lift also declined in different behavioural contexts. In contrast, asymmetry of the stroke was not associated with wing beat frequency or behavioural context—strong indication that birds process and store the Fourier motion energy of butterfly wings. Although direct evidence that birds respond to subtle differences in butterfly wing motion is lacking, birds appear to generalize a motion pattern as much as they encounter members of a mimicry group in different behavioural contexts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 767-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego A.A. Santos ◽  
Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues ◽  
Vasco Furtado ◽  
Kashif Saleem ◽  
Valery Korotaev

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (21) ◽  
pp. 7973-7976
Author(s):  
Tianran Zhang ◽  
XiangRong Liu ◽  
Cheng Hu ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Changjiang Liu ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 (0) ◽  
pp. _2A2-B04_1-_2A2-B04_2
Author(s):  
Koji SHIBUYA ◽  
Kei HASEGAWA ◽  
Ryu YONEDA ◽  
Yoichi SHIOMI ◽  
Tetsuya TSUJIKAMI

2011 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 12a
Author(s):  
Bertrand C.W. Tanner ◽  
Gerrie P. Farman ◽  
Thomas C. Irving ◽  
David W. Maughan ◽  
Mark S. Miller

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