![]() ![]() The team found that instead of flapping their wings up and down, featherwing beetles loop them in a “remarkable” figure-eight pattern, says study co-author Dmitry Kolomenskiy, a physicist studying fluid mechanics at Moscow’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. They used these recordings to construct 3-D models of the diminutive beetle and calculate its aerodynamics. To record the insects’ infinitesimal flight patterns, experimenters placed the creatures in a transparent chamber and filmed them with two high-speed cameras at nearly 4,000 frames per second during a battery of tests. In 2017 the research team collected featherwing beetles from bits of fungi in a Vietnam jungle. Multiple insect lineages, including parasitic wasps, have evolved similar wings as they downsized-but these beetles use a previously unknown strategy to generate their outsized flight prowess, according to the new study’s authors. These porous appendages are light and produce less friction than the typical membrane-based wings that flies have, helping the beetle generate lift. But new research in Nature shows how they wield lightweight wings to keep pace with species three times their size.Īs the name suggests, featherwing beetles sport bristled, featherlike wings. At this scale air becomes syrupy, and scientists once believed the beetles simply drifted wherever the wind blew them. The featherwing beetle ( Paratuposa placentis), less than half a millimeter long, is smaller than some single-celled amoebas. But a beetle the size of a grain of sand flips this maxim on its head. As wings shrink, air friction overwhelms flight power-that’s why dragonflies soar as houseflies sputter. ![]() When it comes to insect flight, bigger is usually better. ![]()
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