#insect flight

[crevicedwelling]

the paralyzed cicadas I picked up from a failed cicada killer nest are the perfect material to show off some cool features of insect anatomy! (although the wasp’s venom would keep them alive for her larvae to eat, I froze them to make sure they’re fully dead for dissection).

cicadas are powerful, fast fliers, and all of their thorax is taken up by a bulk of reddish, stringy flight muscles, which I’ll talk more about later. this cicada is a female, so her abdomen is full of white, elongated eggs that she will insert into tree bark with the bladed ovipositor at her rear.

the male cicada’s abdomen, however, is almost entirely empty, and that air-filled space is used as a resonator for his loud calls. the biggest structure visible there is a curved pair of muscles that deforms the tymbals, producing a click with every contraction.

here's a view of the complete muscle, and the tymbals themselves which look like overlapping plates on his belly. if you're curious what the white frosted appearance is, some Neotibicen have a coat of waxy powder or pruinescence; this male N. tibicen is particularly pruinose.

onto the flight muscles:

powered flight is a pretty complex mechanism in any organism, and is never so simple as just flapping wings up and down, but most insects power their flight in a really unintuitive way (at least for us vertebrates): they contract muscles in their thorax that aren’t even attached to the wings!

this method of flight is called indirect flight, in contrast to the direct flight of the dragonflies and mayflies where each of four wings is directly attached to a muscle and can flap on its own.

instead, most insects have a longitudinal (image 1 above, d below) pair and a vertical (2, c) pair of muscles that deform the shape of abdomen, pulling the upper segment of the thorax (notum) up and down, and this moves the wings which are attached to the notum. useful indirect flight gif from wikipedia found here

even if compressed manually, the dead cicadas "flap" their wings due to the motion of the notum:

insect flight is a lot more complicated than this simplified look at them, but I think these cicadas offer a pretty good look at how most insects get around essentially by squishing themselves internally!

[saraichinwag]

Can Bees Fly At Night?

[dancingdragon00]

Bugs bugs bugs

[jmtolman]

Flight Rising released a new breed today and I, like many others, quickly realized there might be some... conflicts between Aethers and Everluxes.

I love them lol

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[cecils-dragons]

Next batch of breed re-imagining is here, this time with aethers and fae. It may be just me, but I’ve always associated Arcane with bugs, cephalopods, and rodents, and since a cephalopod take would alter them too much I went with rodent bug buddies.

Bonus of head cannon sizing compared to the previous gaolers and tundras.

[hypersaw]

A day out and not so emotionally charged, I want to say that I think everyone should work to unpack their internalized fatphobia, but also their aversion to bugs. Yes, I recognize it's an extremely deep seated reaction for many of us, but your life will SIGNIFICANTLY improve once you can look at a bug or a representation of a bug without triggering a fight or flight response. I know it's hard, especially when the source of that aversion is related to personal trauma. I literally have this issue wrt cockroaches to the point where even the emoji can greatly upset me on a bad day, but it used to be a lot worse and applied to more bugs. Now I'm not exactly singing their praises every day, but I'm much less likely to have my day ruined by a surprise visitor. I can look at more things online without having my guard up. I can appreciate newer content for one of my Favorite Games.

You don't have to love bugs, but getting to a point where they are as inconsequential as like, a pigeon, is such a massive improvement in life.

[legofemme]

To me, the wool gene doesnt look like actual wool or silk and tbh i dont think its meant to. I think it looks like wax! Wooly bugs like the ones pictured here are soft and furry due to wax buildup. Pretty cool huh

[jadafitch]

Blackburnian Warbler over the Downeast coast (sketch).

[miurphey]

EVERY DAY IS FAT FUCK FRIDAY

[onenicebugperday]

@confetti-critter submitted: (Just a warning: there's a siren in the first part of the video)

Taken in BC. Are these termites?

Thanks for letting me know about the siren, I will tag it. And yes they're termites! Probably having their nuptial flight.

[flightrising]

Now you see me... 🌑

FAMILIAR: Assassin Bug

[saraichinwag]

Can Bees Fly At Night?

[dragon-central]

i KNOW i said I wouldnt make anymore original posts about them but guys.

they aren't walking on their legs very much. guys they are wiggling. they are scooting and wiggling like bugs. the legs are hands for holding things and sewing and maybe slight movements. they are pushing themselves with their thick body muscles. like grubs. grubs do not walk on their front feet v much they push themselves with their backsides and wriggle.

their main locomotion is flight and small pushing movements.

guys

[frenzyarts]

It’s Springswarm which means you are legally required to look at Bug

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

for the purposes of having multiple options for the poll, I am assuming dinosaurs evolved powered flight three times. this may be incorrect, but it hasn't been proven wrong yet, so...