Discovering the flight autostabilizer of fruit flies by inducing aerial stumbles.

ABSTRACT: Just as the Wright brothers implemented controls to achieve stable airplane flight, flying insects have evolved behavioral strategies that ensure recovery from flight disturbances. Pioneering studies performed on tethered and dissected insects demonstrate that the sensory, neurological, and musculoskeletal systems play important roles in flight control. Such studies, however, cannot produce an integrative model of insect flight stability because they do not incorporate the interaction of these systems with free-flight aerodynamics. We directly investigate control and stability through the application of torque impulses to freely flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and measurement of their behavioral response. High-speed video and a new motion tracking method capture the aerial "st

SUBMITTER: Ristroph L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2841947 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature