Abstract
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 with body mass within a species of rose chafers (Coleoptera: Protaetia cuprea) in which individuals varied more than threefold in body mass (0.38–1.29 g). Beetles taking off voluntarily were filmed using three high-speed cameras and the instantaneous deformation of their wings during the flapping cycle was analysed. Flapping frequency decreased in larger beetles but, otherwise, flapping kinematics remained similar in both small and large beetles. Deflection of the wing chord-wise varied along the span, with average deflections at the proximal trailing edge higher by 0.2 and 0.197 wing lengths compared to the distal trailing edge in the downstroke and the upstroke, respectively. These deflections scaled with wing chord to the power of 1.0, implying a constant twist and camber despite the variations in wing and body size. This suggests that the allometric growth in wing size includes adjustment of the flexural stiffness of the wing structure to preserve wing twist and camber during flapping.
Highlights
Body size influences many aspects of living creatures [1] not the least of which is locomotion [2]
The time-varying wing deformations of P. cuprea had a clear cyclic pattern that concurred with the flapping kinematics
The efficiency of elastic wings compared to rigid ones is still debated, partially because it is hard to generalize an ‘elastic insect wing’ out of the large variability in insect wing shapes, sizes and flapping kinematics
Summary
Body size influences many aspects of living creatures [1] not the least of which is locomotion [2]. Body size affects 2 flight speed [6], acceleration and manoeuvrability [7,8] and the energetic cost of aerial locomotion [9]. The relationship between body mass and these flight-related traits is often nonlinear and provides a statistical comparative tool with which to examine the function of different organisms within a wide range of size scales [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. While scaling relationships should apply to both interspecific and intraspecific variation in body size, the scaling of flight-related traits within a single species can disclose the effect of physical size more accurately, by isolating it from variations associated with other ecological and phylogenetic factors
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