Wehmann Henja-Niniane, Engels Thomas, Lehmann Fritz-Olaf
Department of Animal Physiology, University of Rostock, 18059 Rostock, Germany.
J Exp Biol. 2022 Jan 1;225(1). doi: 10.1242/jeb.242872. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
Wing damage attenuates aerial performance in many flying animals such as birds, bats and insects. Insect wings are especially light in order to reduce inertial power requirements for flight at elevated wing flapping frequencies. There is a continuing debate on the factors causing wing damage in insects, including collisions with objects, mechanical stress during flight activity, and aging. This experimental study addressed the reasons for and significance of wing damage for flight in the house fly Musca domestica. We determined natural wing area loss under two housing conditions and recorded flight activity and flight ability throughout the animals' lifetime. Our data show that in animals with eventually pronounced damage, wing damage occurs on average after 6 h of flight, is sex specific and depends on housing conditions. Statistical tests show that physiological age and flight activity have similar significance as predictors for wing damage. Tests on freely flying flies showed that minimum wing area for active flight is approximately 10-34% below the initial area and requires a left-right wing area asymmetry of less than approximately 25%. Our findings broadly confirm predictions from simple aerodynamic theory based on mean wing velocity and area, and are also consistent with previous wing damage measurements in other insect species.
翅膀损伤会削弱许多飞行动物（如鸟类、蝙蝠和昆虫）的空中飞行能力。昆虫的翅膀特别轻，以便在较高的翅膀拍打频率下减少飞行所需的惯性功率。关于导致昆虫翅膀损伤的因素存在持续的争论，这些因素包括与物体碰撞、飞行活动期间的机械应力以及老化。这项实验研究探讨了家蝇翅膀损伤对飞行的原因及意义。我们在两种饲养条件下确定了自然翅膀面积损失，并记录了动物一生中的飞行活动和飞行能力。我们的数据表明，在最终翅膀损伤明显的动物中，翅膀损伤平均在飞行6小时后出现，具有性别特异性，且取决于饲养条件。统计测试表明，生理年龄和飞行活动作为翅膀损伤的预测指标具有相似的重要性。对自由飞行的苍蝇进行的测试表明，活跃飞行所需的最小翅膀面积比初始面积大约低10 - 34%，并且左右翅膀面积不对称需小于约25%。我们的研究结果大致证实了基于平均翅膀速度和面积的简单空气动力学理论的预测，并且也与之前在其他昆虫物种中进行的翅膀损伤测量结果一致。
