The tethered flight performance of a laboratory population of Triatoma infestans (Klug) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Abstract

AbstractThe flight performance of a laboratory population of Triatoma infestans (Klug) was tested on a flight balance. Bugs adopted a typical flight posture which is described. They were capable of steady flight and produced reasonable amounts of lift. Flight durations were generally short, but capacity for flight rose to a peak in the third week after adult eclosion with the longest recorded flight being one of 2 h 40 min by a male. Sexual differences were slight; males had a slightly higher mean wing-beat frequency (57·8 Hz against 55·6 Hz), and a few more females than males made longer flights. Differences were noted between short and long fliers; the latter producing significantly more lift and showing signs of a flight pattern divisible into rising, steady and falling phases. The short fliers showed only rising and falling phases. Lift and wing-beat frequency were correlated, but it is evident that lift also depends on other variables such as stroke-plane angle, body angle and wing-beat amplitude, which are discussed.