Meeting Abstract

131.2  Monday, Jan. 7  Optomotor flight control of hawkmoths in the context of their flight dynamics. MULLER, T.*; WINDSOR, S.P.; TAYLOR, G.K.; University of Oxford, UK tonya.muller@zoo.ox.ac.uk

The sensorimotor systems involved in controlling an insect’s flight are tightly coupled with its flight dynamics. The properties of the flight control system must therefore be interpreted in the context of the insect’s flight dynamics in order for the functional properties of the system as a whole to be understood. The properties of the flight control system of hawkmoths Manduca sexta were investigated using a virtual reality flight simulator to measure the flight forces produced by tethered moths in response to wide-field, oscillating visual stimuli. For a given axis of visual rotation, the moths’ response proved to be linear over a range of stimulus frequencies in respect of both homogeneity and superposition. This is particularly interesting given the highly non-linear properties of the neuronal elements of these sensorimotor pathways. Visual stimuli were also presented with six different axes of rotation, in order to present combinations of roll, pitch and yaw stimuli and to explore the limitations of the linearity of the flight control system. Examining the moths’ responses to these combined stimuli in the context of their flight dynamics showed that the measured responses were strongly tuned to the insects’ flight dynamics.