Drosophilid wings have often been used to investigate maternal effects of age and phenotypic plasticity in response to developmental temperature. However, temperature–maternal age interactions have been given little attention despite their potentially important role in driving evolution. Climatic change and anthropogenic intervention can possibly influence the age structure of a population, lea...

During flight, the wings of many insects undergo considerable shape changes in spanwise and chordwise directions. We determined the origin of spanwise wing deformation by combining measurements on segmental wing stiffness of the blowfly Calliphora vicina in the ventral and dorsal directions with numerical modelling of instantaneous aerodynamic and inertial forces within the stroke cycle using a...

The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering for acceptance a thesis entitled " Aeroelastic Roll Control for High Aspect Ratio Wings " Summary Modern aircraft tend to be light and slender. The high aspect ratio reduces the induced drag, increase fuel efficiency, and provide enough lift at low speeds. Therefore such wing types are used ...

We revise two relatively rare ensign wasp genera, whose species are restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa: Afrevania and Trissevania. Afrevania longipetiolata sp. nov., Trissevania heatherae sp. nov., T. hugoi sp. nov., T. mrimaensis sp. nov. and T. slideri sp. nov. are described, males and females of T. anemotis and Afrevania leroyi are redescribed, and an identification key for Trissevaniini is pr...

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signalling by the polarizing region at the posterior margin of the chick wing bud is pivotal in patterning the digits but apart from a few key downstream genes, such as Hoxd13, which is expressed in the posterior region of the wing that gives rise to the digits, the genes that mediate the response to Shh signalling are not known. To find genes that are co-expressed with Hox...

Ladybird beetles are high-mobility insects and explore broad areas by switching between walking and flying. Their excellent wing transformation systems enabling this lifestyle are expected to provide large potential for engineering applications. However, the mechanism behind the folding of their hindwings remains unclear. The reason is that ladybird beetles close the elytra ahead of wing foldin...

The joined-wing is a new concept of the airplane wing. The fore-wing and the aft-wing are joined together in a joined-wing. The range and loiter are longer than those of a conventional wing. The joined-wing can lead to increased aerodynamic performance and reduction of the structural weight. In this research, dynamic response optimization of a joined-wing is carried out by using equivalent stat...

The development of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) demands a systematic exploration of the available design space to identify ways in which the unsteady mechanisms governing flapping-wing flight can best be utilized for producing optimal thrust or maneuverability. Mimicking the wing kinematics of biological flight requires examining the potential effects of wing morphology on flight per...

Intraspecific variation in adult body mass can be particularly high in some insect species, mandating adjustment of the wing's structural properties to support the weight of the larger body mass in air. Insect wings elastically deform during flapping, dynamically changing the twist and camber of the relatively thin and flat aerofoil. We examined how wing deformations during free flight scale wi...

Nomenclature L y spanwise coordinate q net beam loading S shear M bending moment θ deflection angle (= dw/dx) w deflection κ local beam curvature ′ lift/span distribution ′ S η normalized spanwise coordinate (= 2y/b) c local wing chord wing wing area b wing span λ taper ratio E Young's modulus δ tip deflection N load factor m wing mass/span distribution I bending inertia i spanwise station inde...