Flight activity and age cause wing damage in house flies

Abstract

Wing damage attenuates aerial performance in many flying animals such as birds, bats and insects. Especially insect wings are fragile and light in order to reduce inertial power requirements for flight at elevated wing flapping frequencies. There is a continuing debate on the factors causing wing damage in insects including collisions with objects, mechanical stress during flight activity, and aging. This experimental study is engaged with the reasons and significance of wing damage for flight in the house fly Musca domestica. We determined natural wing area loss under two housing conditions and recorded flight activity and flight ability throughout the animals’ lifetime. Our data show that wing damage occurs on average after 6 h of flight, is sex-specific, and depends on housing conditions. Statistical tests show that both physiological age and flight activity have similar significance as predictors for wing damage. Tests on freely flying flies showed that minimum wing area for active flight is approximately 10-34% below the initial area and requires a left-right wing area asymmetry of less than approximately 25%. Our findings broadly confirm predictions from simple aerodynamic theory based on mean wing velocity and area, and are also consistent with previous wing damage measurements in other insect species.

Standardization of the FAO/IAEA Flight Test for Quality Control of Sterile Mosquitoes

“…albopictus mosquitoes, respectively. Aging is known as a factor that causes wing damage in house flies ( Wehmann et al, 2022 ), which might impact flight ability.…”

Flies trade off stability and performance via adaptive compensation to wing damage

“…The response of flying insects to wing damage can provide critical insights into flight-control mechanisms as changes in aerodynamic surface translate to changes in forces and moments of the center of mass. Wing damage can arise from wear or predation and directly influences mortality ( 1 , 5 , 6 ); thus, flying insects have likely evolved a host of compensatory mechanisms to maintain fitness. Insects, unlike birds and bats, cannot repair wing damage and therefore require compensatory control strategies from coupled neural and mechanical systems.…”

Reproductive system and activity patterns of Philornis downsi (Diptera: Muscidae)

“…tryoni walking frequency of flies fed on sugar increased as they aged from 4 to 30 days (Prenter et al 2013). In M. domestica , males increased their flight activity levels from 0 to 10 days of age and then decreased with increasing age, whereas females were overall less active with no apparent differences across ages (Wehmann et al 2022). In P. downsi , at 5 and 10 days of age, both sexes were more active at dusk than at 1 day of age.…”