Meeting Abstract
Like many species within the order Hymenoptera, the yellow jacket (Vespula germanica) forages for insect prey to provide protein for developing young in the nest. Flying while carrying prey requires additional force production and may lead to an off-axis loading problem if the prey is not carried directly beneath the center of mass, as is the case with the yellow jacket. The morphology of wasp abdomens is highly diverse, with some species displaying long, thin petioles separating the abdomen from the thorax and others displaying distinctive, large abdomens like that of the yellow jacket. This morphological variation suggests that wasps may employ their mobile abdomens, as well as their wings, to meet the challenge of maintaining stable flight while carrying a load. To investigate the role of abdominal position and wing kinematics in maintaining stable, loaded flight, we collected 15 individuals from a yellow jacket hive and filmed them ascending towards a light with high-speed cameras. We filmed each individual flying with no load, as well as with a small ball of solder, equal to 20% of the individual’s total mass, glued to the dorsal thorax. We calculated body angle and abdominal flexion angle, as well as wing kinematics. Our analysis reveals that yellow jackets are able to compensate for flying with sizable additional loads through changes in body position and wing kinematics. These compensatory mechanisms have important implications for the design of MAVs capable of carrying variable loads, and point to intriguing evolutionary adaptions among predatory flying insects such as wasps.
