Hoverfly : Wing morphology

[MichaelG.]

As a member of the [ UK ] Postal Microscopical Society, I recently had the pleasure of viewing some Insect slides prepared by Douglas T Richardson.

One of these featured the right wing of a male Volucella pellucens

Macro : Micro Nikkor @ 1:1

Hoverfly Wing.jpg (53.87 KiB) Viewed 3492 times

A detail of which I found particularly interesting

Wild 4x objective : stacked 5 micron steps

Hoverfly Wing detail.jpg (187.91 KiB) Viewed 3492 times

Is this a spring, an hydraulic ram, a damper, or what ?

Please forgive my ignorance !!

MichaelG.

[einman]

I do not spend much if any time on the wing morphology of Dipterans. Although I have seen that type of structure on other dipteran wings. Camber torsion etc is controlled by the placement of the various vein structures. This specific structure no doubt contributes. There is a lot of discussion on the internet regarding structure function and relationship to morphology. Let the long nights browsing papers begin!!

[Hobbyst46]

Perhaps photos under different illumination or magnifications can show whether this is the return-spring of the aileron... amazing image!

[MichaelG.]

... Let the long nights browsing papers begin!!

Thanks for the reply

This one should make an interesting start:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... hoverflies

MichaelG.

[MichaelG.]

Perhaps photos under different illumination or magnifications can show whether this is the return-spring of the aileron... amazing image!

Thanks, but [unfortunately for me] the slide is on its way to the next member on the circuit.

MichaelG.

[75RR]

First image is really quite beautiful - looks much better than it does on the fly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volucella_pellucens

[MichaelG.]

This could turn into quite a voyage of discovery, methinks !!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 110617.pdf

MichaelG.