During flight, insect wings bend and twist under the influence of aerodynamic and inertial forces. We tested whether wing resonance of honeybees (Apis mellifera) matches the wingbeat frequency, against the 'stiff element' hypothesis that the wing's first longitudinal mode exceeds the wingbeat frequency. Six bees were immobilized with their right wing pair outspread, and stimulated with a shaker...

A previously unknown group of flies is described whose males exhibit directional asymmetry, in that the left wing is larger than, and of a different shape from, the right wing. To our knowledge, wing asymmetry of this degree has not previously been reported in an animal capable of flight. Such consistent asymmetry must result from a left-right axis during development, a level of differentiation...

Quantitative investigation of insect activity in their natural habitat is a challenging task for entomologists. It is difficult to address questions such as flight direction, predation strength, and overall activities using the current techniques such as traps and sweep nets. A multispectral kHz remote detection system using sunlight as an illumination source is presented. We explore the possib...

Case Description- A pigeon with an abnormal mass on right wing was referred to the Veterinary Clinic of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. Treatment and Outcome- The mass was removed surgically and histopathologic examination was done. Microscopic findings revealed a stori-form pattern of atypical and pleomorphic spindle-shape tumor cells with histiocytes and too many thick wall capillari...

Insular species frequently demonstrate different tendencies to become smaller or larger than their continental relatives. Two sibling gossamer-wing damselflies, Euphaea formosa (Odonata: Euphaeidae) from Taiwan and E. yayeyamana from the Yaeyama Islands of Japan, have no clear structural differentiation, and can only be recognized by their geographical distribution, sizes, and subtle difference...

Variation in vein position and wing shape of Drosophila melanogaster depends on many genes. In the following, we report the results of a QTL analysis of wing shape in D. melanogaster. We identified QTL responsible for natural variation for wing shape and analyzed their interactions with developmental genetic signaling pathways important for vein positioning. The QTL analysis indicated that the ...

Wild bees in natural conditions can develop under various environmental stressors. Heavy metal pollution of the environment is one of the most widely studied stressors in insects, yet its effect is poorly described in bees. We have measured how pollution of the environment along a zinc, cadmium and lead contamination gradient in Poland affects bee development, using red mason bees (Osmia bicorn...

Class-Shape Transformation (CST) is a popular method for creating analytical representations of the surface coordinates of various components of aerospace vehicles. A wide variety of twoand three-dimensional shapes can be represented analytically using only a modest number of parameters, and the surface representation is smooth and continuous to as fine a degree as desired. This paper expands u...

The genetic structure and phenotypic diversity of two populations of Cheilosia aff. longula (Diptera: Syrphidae) in Lapland, Finland, were examined using DNA sequencing, protein electrophoresis, and geometric morphometrics. The morphological identification of the species were verified using partial sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI mtDNA), and the nuclear ribosomal ...

As part of an effort to dissect quantitative trait locus effects to the nucleotide level, association was assessed between 238 single-nucleotide and 20 indel polymorphisms spread over 11 kb of the Drosophila melanogaster Egfr locus and nine relative warp measures of wing shape. One SNP in a conserved potential regulatory site for a GAGA factor in the promoter of alternate first exon 2 approache...