Meeting Abstract
The flight motor of Diptera forms one of the most intricate biomechanical systems found in the nature. The alternating contractions of the two indirect power muscle groups results in cyclical deformations of the thorax exoskeleton, most noticeably, in the posterior known as the scutellum. These deformations of the thorax and scutellum are then amplified and transmitted to the wing by the multiple hardened cuticular components, called the axillary sclerites, which are manipulated by c.13 specialized accessory muscles. At every stage of a wingbeat cycle, activation levels of both power and accessory muscles and the relative position and orientation of the axillary sclerites can change. Although numerous different models of the wing hinge have been developed in an attempt to describe the inner workings of the hinge joint, they have failed to encapsulate the dynamic and three-dimensional nature of the wing hinge mechanism. This level of complexity can ideally be addressed using Multibody Dynamic Analysis (MDA), which is a computational technique originally developed for engineering applications. We have developed the first MDA model of the Dipteran wing hinge to investigate the function and kinematics of its different components. At this early stage of our modelling, we created an abstract 4-link model of the wing hinge of a blowfly, in which high quality micro-tomographic static scans were used to ensure realistic representation of the wing hinge components. Kinematic data of the thorax, obtained using time-resolved in vivo microtomography, were used to predict the 3D kinematics of the other wing hinge components in each step of a wing beat cycle. This was our initial step towards a more complex model formed by the inclusion of the wing hinge components as well as the power and accessory muscles to investigate the overall mechanism of the insect wing hinge.
