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Sci. STKE, 13 February 2007
Vol. 2007, Issue 373, p. tw56
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.3732007tw56]

EDITORS' CHOICE

Biophysics Two Wings Good, Four Wings Better

Gilbert Chin

Science, AAAS, Washington, DC 20005, USA

Some flying insects have two wings, whereas others have four. The common housefly, which possesses two wings, makes use of the vestigial hindwing (the pendulum-shaped haltere) as a source of mechanosensory input to the neural centers that support stable flight. Sane et al. have asked whether moths, which have four wings, possess a similar kind of flight control mechanism. Instead, the antennae appear to serve a haltere-like function by providing mechanosensory input through hairs or bristles located at their base, whose deflections are translated into afferent neural signals.

S. P. Sane, A. Dieudonné, M. A. Willis, T. L. Daniel, Antennal mechanosensors mediate flight control in moths. Science 315, 863-866 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]

R. M. Alexander, Antennae as gyroscopes. Science 315, 771-772 (2007). [Summary] [Full Text]

Citation: G. Chin, Two Wings Good, Four Wings Better. Sci. STKE 2007, tw56 (2007).

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