#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!

#bugs #insect anatomy #insect flight #cicada

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

#biology #CFD #computational fluid dynamics #flapping flight #flow visualization #fluid dynamics #hovering flight #insect flight #lift generation #moths #physics #science

[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.

#flight rising #fr #fr art #flight rising art #fr fanart #frfanart #fr aether #fr fae #flight rising aether #flight rising fae #creature design #monster design #and just incase #tw insects #tw bug #art

[frenzyarts]

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

#flight rising #fr dragon share #insects #fr dragon showoff #frenzy post

[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...

#dinosaurs #birds #bats #pterosaurs #insects #flight #microraptor #scansoriopterygids #polls #palaeoblr #I know birds will probably win but let's just see what happens

[jadafitch]

Another dream job! Illustrating an article by Kenn Kaufman for National Audubon Society , about identifying flycatchers and knowing their favorite foods. Find out when and where to find midges, mayflies, termites, tent caterpillars and cicadas, in this spring’s issue of Audubon Magazine.

#illustration #jada fitch #art #bird #watercolor #painting #drawing #nature #birds #national audubon #audubon #audubon magazine #illustrator #artist #maine #insects #flycatcher #alder flycatcher #traill's flycatcher #Empidonax alnorum #Empidonax #Tyrannidae #flying #in flight #habitat #biology

[brainworms-all-night-long]

Tails - normal about bugs, likes bugs

Sails - fascinated by bugs, likes bugs

Mangey - loves bugs, collects bugs

Nine - hates bugs, do not put him anywhere close to a bug

#sonic prime #prime bros #bugs as in the animal #nine does not like the creepy crawlies #insects are annoying and tiny bugs are scary and big both of them are unnerving #<- spoiled city kid #Mangey exitedly shows him a cool bug and Nine is fighting his fight or flight response #miles tails prower #tails the fox #miles nine prower #nine the fox #sails tails #sails the fox #mangey tails #mangey the fox #silly brainworms

[b4kuch1n]

about ready

#pokemon #swsh #gym leader raihan #ft. flygon #had a vivid vision of this pose the other day and had to draw it. thats all thank you #I think after flygon's first appearance in anipoke whenever it comes up again the artists just go ''fuck it whatever'' #and draw the legs however they want. it's basically a dinosaur in pmd #this is good for me bc I dont know shit abt fuck #flygon poses really well for how kinda awkward it looks on its own... but I also think abt like #duraludon being in the carwash. practically all the time its all I think about tbh #rest assured. #mim's infected me with the goggles vision I see raihan now I immediately wanna put a goggles on that man #they arent wrong tho. is the thing #is flygon an insect or a reptile.... the tail suggest something like a dragonfly but the neck doesnt seem to have #the shell structure that'd let it bend. thats at least skin #well. flygon is shapes. thats what it is. I enjoy it #I should sleep now... so many things happened today #I really gotta prep the fish tomorrow. dang. so many things on the list for tomorrow too... #have a good night lads. achieve flight

[mawsmauls]

It's easy; like pulling teeth.

Only if it's me, only if they're yours.

#flight rising #frfanart #dragon art #fr skydancer #he plucks his feathers its ah stress related #oh um #insects #i guess #he's represented by a solifugae my fav animal #this is idioms dad! They look very similar #it is deliberate

[olessan-lokenosse]

#SMOL... but the ancient is probably not a little bean #it's an armadillo lizard #but actually it looks more like a roly poly/pillbug so it may be a buggy dragon similar to the aether lol #flight rising #flightrising #fr #fr ancients #fr news #fr official #another insect themed dragon is definitely not my first preference but eager to see em anyway!

[alleppo-fr]

um. el raton. ok?

#my art #flight rising #fr fanart #flight rising fae #pinkie #hes an insect herder bc he is So Small

[tenspontaneite]

Sigs make interesting bodies for themselves sometimes 🙏

#rain world #no significant harassment #assembly #3sig+ #this body is designed and produced substantially post assembly into the 3sig+ timeline #it's intended as a mobile bioengineering bay capable of producing neuron flies for iterators who have a shortage or who can't make their own #it has a technological version of centiwing flight and can get around very quickly #and is an effective hunter. meat fuels its mostly biological body and allows it to produce more neurons #sigs who pilot these platforms will find themselves deadlier than usual as they did a pretty good job with the body's hunting instincts #this is good because my sigs are usually ass at fighting #the body starts out the size of the largest regular centipedes but can molt and grow larger as it ages #i imagine with time they can get a good bit larger than a red centipede #this is definitely the most visually intimidating body a sig has designed so far #they usually prefer cuter or lower key forms #bug #insect #arthropod #centipede

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

#beetle #biology #flapping flight #fluid dynamics #insect flight #insects #low Reynolds number flow #physics #science

[cecils-dragons]

All of The Eleven’s re-imaginings are now done! I really had a blast making these, I don’t do it much but I love monster/dragon designs. In order, Windsinger, Earthshaker, Flamecaller, Tidelord, Icewarden, Stormcatcher, Lightweaver, Shadowbinder, Plaguebringer, Gladekeeper, and The Arcanist.

#flight rising #fr #fr art #flight rising art #fr fan art #flight rising fan art #fr deities #flight rising deities #just inacse tagging bugs and insects for two of the #tw insects #tw bugs #tw body horror #art

[ikemoths]

Hummingbird moths are probably my favorite out of pocket moth to think about during anytime of day

I LOVR THEM TOO!!!!@!

i met some when visiting my bf in france LOOK AT THEM I WAS SQUEAKING IN HAPPINESS

my photos :D

#moths #insect #cute #bugs #flying #insects #insectblr #bugblr #moth #wings #plants #hummingbird #flight #lepidoptera #adorable #animal friends #MWAH I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IO LOVE THRSE

[pearlcatcher-problems]

what does a coatl/spiral baby eat? anything they want!

but no, ogi's favourite foods are seafood and insects, namely the ones pictured above! he'll do almost anything for his favourite tidbits.

#flight rising #flightrising #fr art #hex scribbols once again #fr art share #creature art #dragon art #fr coatl #fr spiral #insect art #fish art #bug art #fr multigaze