Unconventional lift-generating mechanisms in free-flying butterflies

R. B. Srygley and A. L. R. Thomas ()
Additional contact information
R. B. Srygley: University of Oxford
A. L. R. Thomas: University of Oxford

Nature, 2002, vol. 420, issue 6916, 660-664

Abstract: Abstract Flying insects generate forces that are too large to be accounted for by conventional steady-state aerodynamics1,2. To investigate these mechanisms of force generation, we trained red admiral butterflies, Vanessa atalanta, to fly freely to and from artificial flowers in a wind tunnel, and used high-resolution, smoke-wire flow visualizations to obtain qualitative, high-speed digital images of the air flow around their wings. The images show that free-flying butterflies use a variety of unconventional aerodynamic mechanisms to generate force: wake capture3, two different types of leading-edge vortex3,4,5,6,7, active and inactive upstrokes8, in addition to the use of rotational mechanisms3 and the Weis–Fogh ‘clap-and-fling’ mechanism9,10,11,12. Free-flying butterflies often used different aerodynamic mechanisms in successive strokes. There seems to be no one ‘key’ to insect flight, instead insects rely on a wide array of aerodynamic mechanisms to take off, manoeuvre, maintain steady flight, and for landing.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01223 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:420:y:2002:i:6916:d:10.1038_nature01223

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature01223

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().