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Though most insects fold their wings when at rest, dragonflies and some damselflies rest with their wings spread out horizontally, while groups such as the caddisflies, stoneflies, alderflies, and lacewings hold their wings sloped roof-like over their backs. A few moths wrap their wings around their bodies, while many flies and most butterflies ...
A number of apterous insects have secondarily lost their wings through evolution, while other more basal insects like silverfish never evolved wings. In some eusocial insects like ants and termites , only the alate reproductive castes develop wings during the mating season before shedding their wings after mating, while the members of other ...
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 ...
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.
In addition, there are distal wing muscles that assist the bird in flight. [5] Prior to their existence on birds, feathers were present on the bodies of many dinosaur species. Through natural selection, feathers became more common among the animals as their wings developed over the course of tens of millions of years. [6]
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- di-"two", and πτερόν pteron "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans ...
The winners of the 2024 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards have been announced. Launched in 2001, this competition is one of the most prestigious in modern nature photography. This ...
Australasian figbird, catching a beetle on the wing. Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch, though it also applies to birds that spend almost their entire lives on the wing.