Biomechanics of Insect Flight (eBook)

Form, Function, Evolution

Robert Dudley (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2018
496 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18634-4 (ISBN)

Infos

From the rain forests of Borneo to the tenements of Manhattan, winged insects are a conspicuous and abundant feature of life on earth. Here, Robert Dudley presents the first comprehensive explanation of how insects fly. The author relates the biomechanics of flight to insect ecology and evolution in a major new work of synthesis. The book begins with an overview of insect flight biomechanics. Dudley explains insect morphology, wing motions, aerodynamics, flight energetics, and flight metabolism within a modern phylogenetic setting. Drawing on biomechanical principles, he describes and evaluates flight behavior and the limits to flight performance. The author then takes the next step by developing evolutionary explanations of insect flight. He analyzes the origins of flight in insects, the roles of natural and sexual selection in determining how insects fly, and the relationship between flight and insect size, pollination, predation, dispersal, and migration. Dudley ranges widely--from basic aerodynamics to muscle physiology and swarming behavior--but his focus is the explanation of functional design from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. The importance of flight in the lives of insects has long been recognized but never systematically evaluated. This book addresses that shortcoming. Robert Dudley provides an introduction to insect flight that will be welcomed by students and researchers in biomechanics, entomology, evolution, ecology, and behavior.

Autor

Robert Dudley is Professor of Biomechanics and Comparative Physiology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of numerous articles on the biomechanics of insect flight. He is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.6.2018
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Schlagworte: adaptive Radiation • Advance ratio • aerodynamic drag • Aerodynamic Force • aerodynamics • Aircraft • Airfoil • Angle of attack • aphid • Arachnid • Aspect ratio (aeronautics) • Atmosphere of Earth • Autoregulation • Ballooning (spider) • Biomechanics • Bird Anatomy • Canard (aeronautics) • Chalcid wasp • Chironomidae • Crane fly • damselfly • dragonfly • Drosophila • Drosophila melanogaster • Drosophila pseudoobscura • Entomology • Evolutionary pressure • Evolution of insects • fixed-wing aircraft • Flexible wing • flight envelope • Fly • Flying and gliding animals • Free flight (model aircraft) • fuselage • gliding flight • Hamadryas (butterfly) • Hematophagy • Heteroptera • horizontal plane • housefly • hoverfly • Hymenoptera • Hypergravity • Ichneumonidae • insect • Insect Ecology • Insect flight • insectivore • Insect physiology • Insect wing • larva • Leafhopper • Lepidoptera • Lift coefficient • mayfly • Mechanical resonance • Mecoptera • monarch butterfly • moth • Muscidae • Neoptera • Neuroanatomy • Neuroptera • Nuptial flight • Orthoptera • Oviparity • Palaeodictyoptera • parachuting • parasitism • Parasitoid • Parasitoid wasp • pest control • Pheromone • Plecoptera • Protelytroptera • Pterostigma • Scale (anatomy) • Scale insect • Sexual Selection • Slow flight • Sphingidae • Swarm Behaviour • Swarming (honey bee) • Thermoregulation • True airspeed • Tsetse fly • Vertical wind tunnel • Washout (aeronautics) • Wind Tunnel • Wing chord (biology) • Wing clipping • Wing Configuration • Wing coupling • Wing loading • Wingspan • Wing tip • Wingtip device • Wing twist • Zygaenidae
• ISBN-10: 0-691-18634-0 / 0691186340
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-18634-4 / 9780691186344