Tag: Wings
-
Asynchronous Muscles
Asynchronous muscles are muscles in which there is no one-to-one relationship between electrical stimulation and mechanical contraction. These muscles are found in 75% of flying insects and have convergently evolved 7-10 times.[1] Unlike their synchronous counterparts that contract once per neural signal, mechanical oscillations trigger force production in asynchronous muscles. Typically, the rate of mechanical contraction is an order of magnitude…
-
Thorax (arthropod anatomy)
The thorax is the midsection (tagma) of the hexapod body (insects and entognathans). It holds the head, legs, wings and abdomen. It is also called mesosoma or cephalothorax in other arthropods. It is formed by the prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax and comprises the scutellum; the cervix, a membrane that separates the head from the thorax; and the pleuron, a lateral sclerite of the thorax. In dragonflies and damselflies the mesothorax and metathorax are fused together to form the synthorax.[1][2] In…
-
Halteres are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two orders of flying insects that provide information about body rotations during flight
Halteres (singular halter or haltere) (from Ancient Greek: ἁλτῆρες, hand-held weights to give an impetus in leaping) are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two orders of flying insects that provide information about body rotations during flight. Insects of the large order Diptera (flies) have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral hindwings, while males of the much smaller order Strepsiptera (stylops) have halteres which evolved from…