Long tail and evolution of flight ability

Dr Stephen P. Yanoviak of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, published a new study in the journal Royal Society's Biology Letters, giving new insights into the evolution of winged flight.

Yanoviak and co-authors, Mike Kaspari of Oklahoma University and Robert Dudley of the University of California-Berkeley, have observed how long-tailed beetles - the precursor of insects - in the Amazon forest can jump from tree to tree. another by applying a small thread on the body like a primitive rudder system.

Yanoviak said: 'The next steps, such as surfing or control, may be an important stage in the evolution of winged phenomenon'.

Scientists have conducted experiments in tropical forests in Peru, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute at Colorado's Barro Island, Panama, and Gamba, Gabon from 2005 to 2007. They have statistics on behavior. Directly transmitted by long-tailed beetles jumping from tree to tree, living high above the ground in the rainforest.

The long-tail tree-like tail is a precursor of insects in the Amazon forest that can jump from tree to tree by manipulating microfiber on the body like a primitive rudder system. (Photo: University of Arkansas)

Long-tail beetles are sprinkled with orange fluorescence to track their movements.About 90% of the bugs successfully landed on a tree branch. When the nerve fiber in the tail - structure helps them control the ability to slip - is removed, the rate of response to the tree decreases significantly.

Yanoviak said: 'The existence of an aerial control ability of a wingless beetle and its plant habitat is in accordance with the theory of terrestrial origin of insect wings' flight ability.'

Last year, Yanoviak, Kaspari and Dudley, with the help of nematode expert George Poinar, Jr. of Oregon State University, has sparked waves in the worm world with the study of a parasite that can quickly transform the appearance of a host - an ant - that makes the host look like a Delicious berries, cooked in the forests of Central and South America. Their research, published in the journal American Naturalist, may be the first example of a species of parasite that manipulates a host's appearance so that even birds cannot distinguish between a fruit. Red berry and an ant.

Refer:
1. Stephen P Yanoviak, Michael Kaspari, Robert Dudley. Gliding hexapods and the origins of insect aerial behaviors. Biology Letters, 2009; DOI: 10.1098 / rsbl.2009.0029
2. Yanoviak, M. Kaspari, R. Dudley, and G. Poinar Jr.Parasite% u2010Induced Fruit Mimicry in a Tropical Canopy Ant.The American Naturalist, 2008;171 (4): 536-544 DOI: 10.1086 / 528968