insect
- Elastic wing deformations mitigate flapping asymmetry during manoeuvres in rose chafers (Protaetia cuprea)
Summary: During aerial turning, the chordwise flexibility of rose chafer wings increases the torque of each wing while improving maneouvring stability by mitigating the asymmetry in wing pitch between contralateral wings.
- Internal state transition to switch behavioral strategies in cricket phonotaxis
Summary: Detailed observation of crickets freely moving in an experimental arena indicated that their sound-localization behavior is not a reflexive response but a complicated process including multiple behavioral strategies switched by internal state transition.
- Traction force measurements on male Strepsiptera (Insecta) revealed higher forces on smooth compared with hairy substrates
Summary: Males of the strepsipteran Stylops ovinae develop significantly higher forces on smooth than hairy surfaces; these forces are generated by adhesion and not by mechanical interlocking with host hairs.
- Nitric oxide produced by periostial hemocytes modulates the bacterial infection-induced reduction of the mosquito heart rate
Summary: We unveil an exciting new facet of the integration between the immune and circulatory systems of insects, whereby hemocyte-produced nitric oxide drives the infection-induced reduction of mosquito heart rate.
- Directional hearing in insects: biophysical, physiological and ecological challenges
Summary: This Review describes the biophysical, physiological and behavioural solutions that allow small insects to determine the direction of a sound source in space, even under complex field conditions.
- Spatial orientation based on multiple visual cues in non-migratory monarch butterflies
Summary: Non-migrating butterflies keep directed courses when viewing a simulated sun or panoramic scene. This suggests that they orient based on multiple visual cues independent of their migratory context.
- The glue produced by Drosophila melanogaster for pupa adhesion is universal
Highlighted Article: An adhesion test designed to measure the pull-off force required to detach Drosophila pupae showed that Drosophila glue adheres similarly to various substrates of different chemical properties.
- Spectral organization of the compound eye of a migrating nymphalid, the chestnut tiger butterfly Parantica sita
Summary: Eyes of chestnut tiger butterflies have UV-, blue- and green-sensitive cells and they are also polarization sensitive, which may be useful for visual orientation during migration.