Meeting Abstract
Many flying insects accumulate progressive, irreversible wing damage over their lifetimes, which can have severe consequences for the animal, including reduced maneuverability and increased risk of mortality. Prior work has shown that the number of collisions with vegetation during foraging activity affects the rate of wing wear in bumblebees. However, little is known about how collision speed, or wingbeat frequency, affects rate of wing wear. To explore this relationship, we used a high-speed motor to induce damage in the wings of Bombus impatiens bumblebees, by forcing them to repeatedly collide with a leaf surface 500,000 times. We spun wings at three different speeds, representing the maximum rotational velocities associated with wingbeat frequencies of 150Hz, 200Hz and 250Hz, which encompass the range of frequencies observed in B. impatiens. Each wing was photographed at intervals of 50,000 collisions, and we measured the wingtip area remaining at each interval. Wings spinning at the fastest speed, associated with the highest wingbeat frequency, experienced a higher rate of area loss per collision, and a greater overall area loss, than those spinning at slower speeds. Our results suggest that rate of wing wear is dependent on wingbeat frequency, raising the possibility that wing damage risk may exert an evolutionary selective pressure on wing morphology that varies with wingbeat frequency, and perhaps even body size – which is itself correlated with wingbeat frequency.
