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This generally produces less power and is less efficient than asynchronous muscle, which accounts for the independent evolution of asynchronous flight muscles in several separate insect clades. [3] Insects that beat their wings more rapidly, such as the bumblebee, use asynchronous muscle; this is a type of muscle that contracts more than once ...
Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax ), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings , respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments.
The name Palaeoptera (from Greek παλαιός (palaiós 'old') + πτερόν (pterón 'wing')) has been traditionally applied to those ancestral groups of winged insects (most of them extinct) that lacked the ability to fold the wings back over the abdomen as characterizes the Neoptera.
Insects that had evolved their proto-wings in a world without flying predators could afford to be exposed openly without risk, but this changed when carnivorous flying insects evolved. It is unknown when they first evolved, but once these predators had emerged they put a strong selection pressure on their victims and themselves.
There are two basic aerodynamic models of insect flight. Most insects use a method that creates a spiralling leading edge vortex. [19] [20] Some very small insects use the fling-and-clap or Weis-Fogh mechanism in which the wings clap together above the insect's body and then fling apart. As they fling open, the air gets sucked in and creates a ...
There is a similarity between their fore- and hindwings, and an additional pair of winglets on the prothorax, in front of the first pair of wings. They are known as " six-winged insects " because of the presence of a pair of wings on each of the thoracic segments.
Dragonflies (suborder Anisoptera) are heavy-bodied, strong-flying insects that hold their wings horizontally both in flight and at rest. By contrast, damselflies (suborder Zygoptera) have slender bodies and fly more weakly; most species fold their wings over the abdomen when stationary, and the eyes are well separated on the sides of the head.
Mayflies are delicate-looking insects with one or two pairs of membranous, triangular wings, which are extensively covered with veins. At rest, the wings are held upright, like those of a butterfly. The hind wings are much smaller than the forewings and may be vestigial or absent.