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Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind

Foraging insects fly over long distances through complex aerial environments, and many can maintain constant ground speeds in wind, allowing them to gauge flight distance. Although insects encounter winds from all directions in the wild, most lab-based studies have employed still air or headwinds (i...

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Autores principales: Combes, Stacey A., Gravish, Nick, Gagliardi, Susan F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Company of Biologists Ltd 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10263149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37070947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245374
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author Combes, Stacey A.
Gravish, Nick
Gagliardi, Susan F.
author_facet Combes, Stacey A.
Gravish, Nick
Gagliardi, Susan F.
author_sort Combes, Stacey A.
collection PubMed
description Foraging insects fly over long distances through complex aerial environments, and many can maintain constant ground speeds in wind, allowing them to gauge flight distance. Although insects encounter winds from all directions in the wild, most lab-based studies have employed still air or headwinds (i.e. upwind flight); additionally, insects are typically compelled to fly in a single, fixed environment, so we know little about their preferences for different flight conditions. We used automated video collection and analysis methods and a two-choice flight tunnel paradigm to examine thousands of foraging flights performed by hundreds of bumblebees flying upwind and downwind. In contrast to the preference for flying with a tailwind (i.e. downwind) displayed by migrating insects, we found that bees prefer to fly upwind. Bees maintained constant ground speeds when flying upwind or downwind in flow velocities from 0 to 2 m s(−1) by adjusting their body angle, pitching down to raise their air speed above flow velocity when flying upwind, and pitching up to slow down to negative air speeds (flying backwards relative to the flow) when flying downwind. Bees flying downwind displayed higher variability in body angle, air speed and ground speed. Taken together, bees' preference for upwind flight and their increased kinematic variability when flying downwind suggest that tailwinds may impose a significant, underexplored flight challenge to bees. Our study demonstrates the types of questions that can be addressed with newer approaches to biomechanics research; by allowing bees to choose the conditions they prefer to traverse and automating filming and analysis to examine massive amounts of data, we were able to identify significant patterns emerging from variable locomotory behaviors, and gain valuable insight into the biomechanics of flight in natural environments.
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spelling pubmed-102631492023-06-15 Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind Combes, Stacey A. Gravish, Nick Gagliardi, Susan F. J Exp Biol Research Article Foraging insects fly over long distances through complex aerial environments, and many can maintain constant ground speeds in wind, allowing them to gauge flight distance. Although insects encounter winds from all directions in the wild, most lab-based studies have employed still air or headwinds (i.e. upwind flight); additionally, insects are typically compelled to fly in a single, fixed environment, so we know little about their preferences for different flight conditions. We used automated video collection and analysis methods and a two-choice flight tunnel paradigm to examine thousands of foraging flights performed by hundreds of bumblebees flying upwind and downwind. In contrast to the preference for flying with a tailwind (i.e. downwind) displayed by migrating insects, we found that bees prefer to fly upwind. Bees maintained constant ground speeds when flying upwind or downwind in flow velocities from 0 to 2 m s(−1) by adjusting their body angle, pitching down to raise their air speed above flow velocity when flying upwind, and pitching up to slow down to negative air speeds (flying backwards relative to the flow) when flying downwind. Bees flying downwind displayed higher variability in body angle, air speed and ground speed. Taken together, bees' preference for upwind flight and their increased kinematic variability when flying downwind suggest that tailwinds may impose a significant, underexplored flight challenge to bees. Our study demonstrates the types of questions that can be addressed with newer approaches to biomechanics research; by allowing bees to choose the conditions they prefer to traverse and automating filming and analysis to examine massive amounts of data, we were able to identify significant patterns emerging from variable locomotory behaviors, and gain valuable insight into the biomechanics of flight in natural environments. The Company of Biologists Ltd 2023-04-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10263149/ /pubmed/37070947 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245374 Text en © 2023. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Research Article
Combes, Stacey A.
Gravish, Nick
Gagliardi, Susan F.
Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title_full Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title_fullStr Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title_full_unstemmed Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title_short Going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
title_sort going against the flow: bumblebees prefer to fly upwind and display more variable kinematics when flying downwind
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10263149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37070947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245374
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