SRYGLEY, R.B.: Locomotor Mimicry among Passion-vine Butterflies Heliconius With regard to prey motion, the evolution of mimicry has been investigated in three areas: 1) locomotor mimicry, 2) anti-apostatic selection, and 3) escape mimicry. Locomotor mimicry is the similarity in motion of two distantly-related prey species. Because of evolutionary convergence in key morphological features that are […]

KIRKTON, S.D.*; HARRISON, J.F.: Effects of Allometric Growth on Oxygen Sensitivity and Jumping Performance in the American Locust Body size changes within instars and across the lives of insects could have significant respiratory and locomotory consequences because of possible problems with oxygen delivery in larger insects. We investigated the effect of across and within instar […]

Jindrich, D. L.*; Full, R. J.: Dynamic Stabilization of Rapid Hexapodal Locomotion Mechanical properties of muscles, connective tissues, and skeletal elements contribute to reducing energy costs, but can also simplify the control of rapid locomotion in animals. Passive mechanical behavior of the musculo-skeletal system may play a role in stability. Rapidly acting, musculo-skeletal ‘preflexes’ have […]

ANDERSON, B.D.*; FULL, R.J.; GARCIA, M.: A Spring-Mass Model of Centipede Locomotion The laterally undulating Arizona centipede, Scolopendra heros, uses a metachronal gait in which all legs on the concave side of the bent body touch the ground at a single point. Each leg of the wave of legs traveling through this point is not […]

MORENO, C.A.*; TU, M.S.; DANIEL, T.L.: Visual-motor feedback in the tracking behavior of hovering Manduca sexta. Insight into the complex interplay of sensory information, musculoskeletal mechanics, and aerodynamic forces is critical for understanding the fundamental determinants and limits of insect flight performance. While feeding at flowers in the wind, hovering hawkmoths must track a moving […]

Sane, S.P.*; Dickinson, M.H.: Unsteady aerodynamic forces are important for production of force moments by flapping wings. Insects use aerodynamic forces not only to stay in air, but also to steer and maneuver. Through changes in wing kinematics, insects can finely control the pitch, roll and yaw moments around their body and thus maneuver. In […]

COMBES, S.A.*; TRIMBLE, A.C.; DANIEL, T.L.: Spatial profiles of wing stiffness in hawkmoths and dragonflies Insect flight performance depends strongly on the dynamic geometry of wings. The curvature of the trailing edge, in particular, is a crucial determinant of aerodynamic force generation. In insects, wing curvature results from the instantaneous interaction between aerodynamic forces and […]

BIRCH, J.M.*; DICKINSON, M.H.: Dynamic stall of a flapping appendage in the absence of a spiral vortex Recent studies of insect flight describe how dynamic stall and the formation of a leading edge vortex generate large lift forces for insects. This leading edge vortex, along with forces generated through rotation and wake capture, accounts for […]

Usherwood, J. R.: Aerodynamics and energetics of animal flight based on propeller models Recent work on flapping insect models has demonstrated the importance of a spiral ‘leading-edge vortex’ created by dynamic stall and maintained by some aspect of spanwise flow, for creating the lift required during flight (Ellington et al., 1996; Dickinson et al., 1999). […]

MILLER, L.A.: A mathematical model of insect flight: The immersed boundary method with fling Lift generation by insects at low Reynold’s numbers has been a subject of great interest to some biologists, engineers, and mathematicians over the past few decades. Unfortunately, a realistic mathematical model of insect flight, including a flexible wing moving with three […]