Chapter 4

Flight Morphology and Flight Muscles

N. Chari, A. Ravi, Ponna Srinivas, and A. Uma

Abstract Structure of flying segments—thorax, associated chitinous membranous

wings and their morphology have been explained including venation. Venation of

wing helps in identifying species and also in classifying insects. Direct and indirect

flight muscles, which help wing movements have been described. Flight parameters

of body and wing contribute to basic understanding of wing movements in insect

flight. Flight parameters of some insects have been studied in greater detail so that this

may help in understanding the design of biomimicking MAVs. Differences between

Neurogenic and myogenic muscles and the basis of muscle contraction have been

explained. Oxidation of biomolecules has been summarised in the form of a table.

Keywords Wing venation · Wing muscles · Flight parameters · Wingbeat

frequency · Pterothorax · Myofibrils · Neurogenic and myogenic fliers

Introduction

Thestudyof theflight morphologyof insects helps inunderstandingbasicandderived

flight parameters which are responsible for the flight performance of a flier. In insect

flight, the mass is small and the aerodynamic forces such as lift, thrust and drag devel-

oped are proportional to wing area and wingspan. The morphological parameters of

the insect body and associated wings help in flight. Basic flight parameters and their

development are under genetic control. Therefore, the detailed study of basic and

derived parameters and their correlation is necessary to understand the aerodynamic

N. Chari (B)

Kakatiya University, Warangal, India

A. Ravi

Adilabad, Telangana, India

P. Srinivas

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, India

A. Uma

Department of Bio-Technology, JNTUH, Hyderabad, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021

N. Chari et al. (eds.), Biophysics of Insect Flight, Springer Series in Biophysics 22,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5184-7_4

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