Stereo high speed video of 0.4 mm beetles in flight

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Stereo high speed video of 0.4 mm beetles in flight

Post by rjlittlefield »

From Science News magazine, Feb 12, 2022:
How these tiny beetles are such superb fliers
Featherwing beetles are some of the world's smallest flying insects. Yet they can rocket along with the speed of much larger insects. Now, scientists have figured out how the beetles do it.
A wide wingstroke combined with lightweight, bristled wings allows the beetles to efficiently propel themselves through the air, researchers report January 19 in Nature.
The SEM image at the top of the article shows a beetle with body length about 0.4 mm and wings that look like bottle brushes with unusually sparse bristles.

The online version of the Science News article, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/beetle-fly-fast-wing-bristles-stroke-tiny-featherwing , embeds high speed video from two synchronized cameras, side-by-side, suitable for viewing in stereo either cross-eyed or parallel. (The images are essentially silhouettes, so depth inversion is harmless.)

The original Nature article is publicly accessible at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04303-7 . Lots of hard-core technical detail.

--Rik

ap
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Re: Stereo high speed video of 0.4 mm beetles in flight

Post by ap »

very cool rik - thanks for sharing! the sem's in the article are also very beautiful
andy

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Stereo high speed video of 0.4 mm beetles in flight

Post by MarkSturtevant »

That must have been highly challenging to record. There are super tiny insects in several orders that have plumose wings like the beetle. Those should be cases of convergent evolution.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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