Meeting Abstract

82.6  Monday, Jan. 6 11:45  Hunting with damaged wings: How does the location of dragonfly wing damage affect flight biomechanics and predation success? SALCEDO, M.K.*; IWASAKI, J.M.; RUNDLE, D.E.; COMBES, S.A.; Harvard; Univ. of Otago; Harvard; Harvard maryksalcedo@fas.harvard.edu

Dragonflies perform a diverse array of complex aerial behaviors that entail a challenge for flight control, even under ideal circumstances. In the wild however, dragonflies often perform these maneuvers while suffering from natural wing damage. Wing damage negatively impacts survival in bees and predation success in dragonflies, but the link between specific morphological changes induced by wing damage and the resulting changes in flight biomechanics and performance remains unclear. We examined how symmetric damage to the hind wings of dragonflies (Sympetrum rubicundulum) affects dragonflies’ ability to perform the complex maneuvers involved in aerial predation, by comparing capture success and flight biomechanics before and after inflicting artificial wing damage. We compared the effects of equal amounts of area loss (30% of hind wing area/18% of total area) in two commonly damaged areas of the wing, the tip and trailing edge, resulting in different morphological changes (reduced span vs. narrower wing chord). Predation trials conducted on 25 dragonflies before and after manipulation revealed that both wing damage treatments significantly reduced predation success, and that the two treatments reduced success by nearly identical amounts, regardless of the location of damage. Kinematic analysis showed that peak acceleration was reduced following both types of artificial wing damage, and that some aspects of maneuverability (e.g. turning rate, radial acceleration) may also be compromised. These results provide further evidence that wing damage can have severe ecological consequences, suggesting that insects may display morphological and/or behavioral adaptations to reduce the accumulation of irreversible wing damage.