Dickinson 9723424 Flight in insects is a complex form of locomotion that requires an array of physiological and morphological specializations. The research to be done under this award to the PI will focus on how muscles, skeletons, and brains function together to enable flying animals to perform elaborate aerial maneuvers. The research in this proposal focuses on flies, which although using relatively simple brains, are capable of elaborate flight behavior. Flies are unique among all flying animals in possessing specialized sensory structure called halteres that serve as a gyroscopes during flight. The first goal of the research is to study how the halteres are used to increase flight stability. These experiments will employ a mechanically-oscillating flight arena to characterize the behavioral responses elicited by angular perturbations. The second goal of the project is to use a large scaled model of a flapping fly to determine how changes in wing motion effect the production of aerodynamic forces. The third goal of the research is to combine electrophysiology with high-speed video imaging to characterize how steering muscles act to change the motion of the wings during flight. These first three sets of experiments will determine how animals use corrective reflexes to maintain stable flight. The final portion of the project is to determine how animals initiate voluntary maneuvers when they are actively searching their environment for food or mates. This research will contribute to the understanding of the rapid neural processing and aerodynamic mechanisms that are required to produce sophisticated flight behavior.
