Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Close encounters of three kinds: impacts of leg, wing, and body collisions on flight performance in carpenter bees

View ORCID ProfileNicholas P. Burnett, Stacey A. Combes
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.21.513269
Nicholas P. Burnett
1Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior; University of California, Davis, CA 95616
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Nicholas P. Burnett
  • For correspondence: burnettnp@gmail.com
Stacey A. Combes
1Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior; University of California, Davis, CA 95616
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Flying insects often forage among cluttered vegetation that forms a series of obstacles in their flight path. Recent studies have focused on behaviors needed to navigate clutter while avoiding all physical contact, and as a result, we know little about flight behaviors that do involve encounters with obstacles. Here, we challenged carpenter bees (Xylocopa varipuncta) to fly through narrow gaps in an obstacle course to determine the kinds of obstacle encounters they experience, as well as the consequences for flight performance. We observed three kinds of encounters: leg, body, and wing collisions. Wing collisions occurred most frequently (in about 40% of flights, up to 25 times per flight) but these had little effect on flight speed or body orientation. In contrast, body and leg collisions, which each occurred in about 20% of flights (1-2 times per flight), resulted in decreased flight speeds and increased rates of body rotation (yaw). Wing and body collisions, but not leg collisions, were more likely to occur in wind versus still air. Thus, physical encounters with obstacles may be a frequent occurrence for insects flying in some environments, and the immediate effects of these encounters on flight performance depends on the body part involved.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://doi.org/10.25338/B8M939

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 24, 2022.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Close encounters of three kinds: impacts of leg, wing, and body collisions on flight performance in carpenter bees
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Close encounters of three kinds: impacts of leg, wing, and body collisions on flight performance in carpenter bees
Nicholas P. Burnett, Stacey A. Combes
bioRxiv 2022.10.21.513269; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.21.513269
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Close encounters of three kinds: impacts of leg, wing, and body collisions on flight performance in carpenter bees
Nicholas P. Burnett, Stacey A. Combes
bioRxiv 2022.10.21.513269; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.21.513269

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Zoology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4087)
  • Biochemistry (8768)
  • Bioengineering (6481)
  • Bioinformatics (23348)
  • Biophysics (11753)
  • Cancer Biology (9150)
  • Cell Biology (13256)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7417)
  • Ecology (11371)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15091)
  • Genetics (10402)
  • Genomics (14012)
  • Immunology (9122)
  • Microbiology (22050)
  • Molecular Biology (8780)
  • Neuroscience (47381)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1420)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2482)
  • Physiology (3705)
  • Plant Biology (8054)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1431)
  • Synthetic Biology (2209)
  • Systems Biology (6016)
  • Zoology (1250)