Meeting Abstract

17.7  Friday, Jan. 4  A general mechanical model of the Dipteran thorax DEORA, T.*; SINGH, A.K.; SANE, S.P.; National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore; National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore; National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore tanvid@ncbs.res.in

The evolutionary miniaturization of body size in diverse insects meant that their wing beat frequencies had to substantially increase to meet the aerodynamic requirements of flight. In many cases, wing beat frequencies far exceed 100 Hz to rates that challenge the ability of the nervous system to directly control every wing stroke. However, because subtle alterations of wing strokes can result in significant aerial maneuvers, these insects still need to ensure that their wing motion is accurate. How do insects handle the dual challenge of being both fast and accurate? The evolution of indirect and asynchronous flight muscles partially addresses the challenge of enhancing wing beat frequency, but it is relatively unknown how insects coordinate their wing motion with respect to other flight related sensory organs. Using the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, we show that the answer lies in the physical architecture of the thorax, which includes a system of multiple, distributed mechanical linkages that connect the wings and halteres. These allow the wings to oscillate in phase with each other, but the halteres oscillate anti-phase to the wings. Moreover, this coordination between the wings and halteres is essential for flight and its disruption causes flight defects. Based on the principles investigated during the course of the study, we propose a general mechanical model of the Dipteran thorax that explains how insects manage to maintain the mutual phase relationships between their wings and halteres.