ABSTRACTHabitat specialization can influence the evolution of animal movement in promoting diverg... more ABSTRACTHabitat specialization can influence the evolution of animal movement in promoting divergent locomotor abilities adapted to contrasting environmental conditions, differences in vegetation clutter or predatory communities. While the effect of habitat on the evolution of locomotion and particularly escape performance has been well investigated in terrestrial animals, it remains understudied in flying animals. Here, we investigated whether specialization of Morpho butterfly species into different vertical strata of the Amazonian forest affects the performance of upward escape flight manoeuvres. Using stereoscopic high-speed videography, we compared the climbing flight kinematics of seven Morpho species living either in the forest canopy or in the understory. We show that butterflies from canopy species display strikingly higher climbing speed and steeper ascent angle compared with understory species. Although climbing speed increased with wing speed and angle of attack, the hig...
After tracking the kinematics of a moving mosquito from video, one needs to convert the tracking ... more After tracking the kinematics of a moving mosquito from video, one needs to convert the tracking output into the kinematics data needed to answer the research question. Here, we provide general guidelines for how to do this by discussing how to quantify body position and orientation in the world reference frame and wing and leg orientation in the mosquito body reference frame. These guidelines should be adapted based on the goal of your research. To answer your research question, the resulting kinematics data must then be further analyzed. Because the nature of this analysis depends strongly on your specific research question, we refer to literature for designing these postprocessing routines.
Female mosquitoes of most species require a blood meal for egg development. When biting a human h... more Female mosquitoes of most species require a blood meal for egg development. When biting a human host to collect this blood meal, they can spread dangerous diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, or dengue. Researchers use videography to study many aspects of mosquito behavior, including in-flight host-seeking, takeoff, and landing behaviors, as well as probing and blood feeding, and more. Here, we introduce protocols on how to use videography to capture and analyze mosquito movements at high spatial and temporal resolution, in two and three dimensions.
In this protocol, we describe the basic design considerations and general method to set up a vide... more In this protocol, we describe the basic design considerations and general method to set up a videography system to study mosquito behavior. A basic videography system to study mosquito behavior requires one or more cameras with an optical lens, camera lighting, a calibration setup, and a system to record the video data or otherwise control the camera. Here, we define two types of systems: (1) a real-time videography-based tracking system for determining the position of multiple moving (flying) mosquitoes, and (2) a high-fidelity videography system that can track the detailed movements of body, wings, and legs of a single mosquito at high spatial and temporal resolutions. These high-fidelity trackers are divided into single-camera systems for studying two-dimensional (2D) movements, and multicamera systems that can reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) movements of the mosquito.
In this protocol, we discuss general techniques for tracking the three-dimensional (3D) locations... more In this protocol, we discuss general techniques for tracking the three-dimensional (3D) locations of the mosquito body, wings, legs, or other features of interest using videos. Tracking data must be acquired to produce detailed kinematics of moving mosquitoes. The software of focus for this protocol, DLTdv, was chosen for its widespread use and excellent support and because it is open-source. In addition, DLTdv allows both manual and automatic tracking. The automatic tracking can be done using a classic machine vision or machine-learning algorithm. The software supports both single-camera analysis and multicamera systems and can take advantage of sophisticated calibration algorithms, both for intrinsic lens distortion correction and for 3D DLT-based reconstruction. For this protocol, we assume all kinematic data is acquiredpost hocthrough video analysis.
The fluid dynamics of insect wings and the fins and tails of fish are governed by vortex wake int... more The fluid dynamics of insect wings and the fins and tails of fish are governed by vortex wake interactions, which are strongly related to the wing, fins and tail kinematics. By modeling the kinematics of these wings, fins and tails as a two-dimensionally flapping foil, the influence of the kinematics on the vortex wake interactions is studied. This is done by varying the non-dimensional advance ratio -which describes the amount of foil chord lengths traveled during one falling cycle- and keeping the other independent variables constant. The vortex wake interactions in the wake of the flapping foil as a function of the advance ratio were studied with so-called soap-film tunnel technique: a planar film of soap runs down between two wires at constant flow velocity. In this soap-film the vorticity field in the wake of the flapping foil can directly be visualized using a high speed camera and monochromatic illumination. Different vortex wake pattern domains were found for various advance ratios. This shows that the vortex wake interactions are strongly related to the advance ratio as well as the behavior of the Leading Edge Vortex (LEV). At low advance (Less)
Natural fliers utilize passive and active flight control strategies to cope with windy conditions... more Natural fliers utilize passive and active flight control strategies to cope with windy conditions. This capability makes them incredibly agile and resistant to wind gusts. Here, we study how insects achieve this, by combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses of flying fruit flies with freely-flying robotic experiments. The CFD analysis shows that flying flies are partly passively stable in side-wind conditions due to their dorsal-ventral wing-beat asymmetry defined as wing-stroke dihedral. Our robotic experiments confirm that this mechanism also stabilizes free-moving flapping robots with similar asymmetric dihedral wing-beats. This shows that both animals and robots with asymmetric wing-beats are dynamically stable in sideways wind gusts. Based on these results, we developed an improved model for the aerodynamic yaw and roll torques caused by the coupling between lateral motion and the stroke dihedral. The yaw coupling passively steers an asymmetric flapping flyer into t...
This dataset contains 10,005 landing manoeuvres of bumblebees observed in three different light c... more This dataset contains 10,005 landing manoeuvres of bumblebees observed in three different light conditions and in the presence of two different landing patterns. This dataset supplements the text in the manuscript titled: "Bumblebees land rapidly and robustly using a sophisticated modular flight control strategy".
Flying animals often encounter winds during visually guided landings. However, how winds affect t... more Flying animals often encounter winds during visually guided landings. However, how winds affect their flight control strategy during landing is unknown. Here, we investigated how sidewind affects the landing strategy, sensorimotor control, and landing performance of foraging bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). For this, we trained a hive of bumblebees to forage in a wind tunnel, and used high-speed stereoscopic videography to record 19,421 landing flight maneuvers in six sidewind speeds (0 to 3.4 m s−1), which correspond to winds encountered in nature. Bumblebees landed less often in higher windspeeds, but the landing duration from free flight was not increased by wind. We then tested how bumblebees adjusted their landing control to compensate for the adverse effects of sidewind on landing. This showed that the landing strategy in sidewind was similar to that in still air, but with important adaptations. In the highest windspeeds, more hover phases occurred than during landings in still...
ABSTRACTHabitat specialization can influence the evolution of animal movement in promoting diverg... more ABSTRACTHabitat specialization can influence the evolution of animal movement in promoting divergent locomotor abilities adapted to contrasting environmental conditions, differences in vegetation clutter or predatory communities. While the effect of habitat on the evolution of locomotion and particularly escape performance has been well investigated in terrestrial animals, it remains understudied in flying animals. Here, we investigated whether specialization of Morpho butterfly species into different vertical strata of the Amazonian forest affects the performance of upward escape flight manoeuvres. Using stereoscopic high-speed videography, we compared the climbing flight kinematics of seven Morpho species living either in the forest canopy or in the understory. We show that butterflies from canopy species display strikingly higher climbing speed and steeper ascent angle compared with understory species. Although climbing speed increased with wing speed and angle of attack, the hig...
After tracking the kinematics of a moving mosquito from video, one needs to convert the tracking ... more After tracking the kinematics of a moving mosquito from video, one needs to convert the tracking output into the kinematics data needed to answer the research question. Here, we provide general guidelines for how to do this by discussing how to quantify body position and orientation in the world reference frame and wing and leg orientation in the mosquito body reference frame. These guidelines should be adapted based on the goal of your research. To answer your research question, the resulting kinematics data must then be further analyzed. Because the nature of this analysis depends strongly on your specific research question, we refer to literature for designing these postprocessing routines.
Female mosquitoes of most species require a blood meal for egg development. When biting a human h... more Female mosquitoes of most species require a blood meal for egg development. When biting a human host to collect this blood meal, they can spread dangerous diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, or dengue. Researchers use videography to study many aspects of mosquito behavior, including in-flight host-seeking, takeoff, and landing behaviors, as well as probing and blood feeding, and more. Here, we introduce protocols on how to use videography to capture and analyze mosquito movements at high spatial and temporal resolution, in two and three dimensions.
In this protocol, we describe the basic design considerations and general method to set up a vide... more In this protocol, we describe the basic design considerations and general method to set up a videography system to study mosquito behavior. A basic videography system to study mosquito behavior requires one or more cameras with an optical lens, camera lighting, a calibration setup, and a system to record the video data or otherwise control the camera. Here, we define two types of systems: (1) a real-time videography-based tracking system for determining the position of multiple moving (flying) mosquitoes, and (2) a high-fidelity videography system that can track the detailed movements of body, wings, and legs of a single mosquito at high spatial and temporal resolutions. These high-fidelity trackers are divided into single-camera systems for studying two-dimensional (2D) movements, and multicamera systems that can reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) movements of the mosquito.
In this protocol, we discuss general techniques for tracking the three-dimensional (3D) locations... more In this protocol, we discuss general techniques for tracking the three-dimensional (3D) locations of the mosquito body, wings, legs, or other features of interest using videos. Tracking data must be acquired to produce detailed kinematics of moving mosquitoes. The software of focus for this protocol, DLTdv, was chosen for its widespread use and excellent support and because it is open-source. In addition, DLTdv allows both manual and automatic tracking. The automatic tracking can be done using a classic machine vision or machine-learning algorithm. The software supports both single-camera analysis and multicamera systems and can take advantage of sophisticated calibration algorithms, both for intrinsic lens distortion correction and for 3D DLT-based reconstruction. For this protocol, we assume all kinematic data is acquiredpost hocthrough video analysis.
The fluid dynamics of insect wings and the fins and tails of fish are governed by vortex wake int... more The fluid dynamics of insect wings and the fins and tails of fish are governed by vortex wake interactions, which are strongly related to the wing, fins and tail kinematics. By modeling the kinematics of these wings, fins and tails as a two-dimensionally flapping foil, the influence of the kinematics on the vortex wake interactions is studied. This is done by varying the non-dimensional advance ratio -which describes the amount of foil chord lengths traveled during one falling cycle- and keeping the other independent variables constant. The vortex wake interactions in the wake of the flapping foil as a function of the advance ratio were studied with so-called soap-film tunnel technique: a planar film of soap runs down between two wires at constant flow velocity. In this soap-film the vorticity field in the wake of the flapping foil can directly be visualized using a high speed camera and monochromatic illumination. Different vortex wake pattern domains were found for various advance ratios. This shows that the vortex wake interactions are strongly related to the advance ratio as well as the behavior of the Leading Edge Vortex (LEV). At low advance (Less)
Natural fliers utilize passive and active flight control strategies to cope with windy conditions... more Natural fliers utilize passive and active flight control strategies to cope with windy conditions. This capability makes them incredibly agile and resistant to wind gusts. Here, we study how insects achieve this, by combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses of flying fruit flies with freely-flying robotic experiments. The CFD analysis shows that flying flies are partly passively stable in side-wind conditions due to their dorsal-ventral wing-beat asymmetry defined as wing-stroke dihedral. Our robotic experiments confirm that this mechanism also stabilizes free-moving flapping robots with similar asymmetric dihedral wing-beats. This shows that both animals and robots with asymmetric wing-beats are dynamically stable in sideways wind gusts. Based on these results, we developed an improved model for the aerodynamic yaw and roll torques caused by the coupling between lateral motion and the stroke dihedral. The yaw coupling passively steers an asymmetric flapping flyer into t...
This dataset contains 10,005 landing manoeuvres of bumblebees observed in three different light c... more This dataset contains 10,005 landing manoeuvres of bumblebees observed in three different light conditions and in the presence of two different landing patterns. This dataset supplements the text in the manuscript titled: "Bumblebees land rapidly and robustly using a sophisticated modular flight control strategy".
Flying animals often encounter winds during visually guided landings. However, how winds affect t... more Flying animals often encounter winds during visually guided landings. However, how winds affect their flight control strategy during landing is unknown. Here, we investigated how sidewind affects the landing strategy, sensorimotor control, and landing performance of foraging bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). For this, we trained a hive of bumblebees to forage in a wind tunnel, and used high-speed stereoscopic videography to record 19,421 landing flight maneuvers in six sidewind speeds (0 to 3.4 m s−1), which correspond to winds encountered in nature. Bumblebees landed less often in higher windspeeds, but the landing duration from free flight was not increased by wind. We then tested how bumblebees adjusted their landing control to compensate for the adverse effects of sidewind on landing. This showed that the landing strategy in sidewind was similar to that in still air, but with important adaptations. In the highest windspeeds, more hover phases occurred than during landings in still...
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