Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T10:11:25.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The tethered flight performance of a laboratory population of Triatoma infestans (Klug) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. P. Ward  and
P. S. Baker
J. P. Ward
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
P. S. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The flight performance of a laboratory population of Triatoma infestans (Klug) was tested on a flight balance. Bugs adopted a typical flight posture which is described. They were capable of steady flight and produced reasonable amounts of lift. Flight durations were generally short, but capacity for flight rose to a peak in the third week after adult eclosion with the longest recorded flight being one of 2 h 40 min by a male. Sexual differences were slight; males had a slightly higher mean wing-beat frequency (57·8 Hz against 55·6 Hz), and a few more females than males made longer flights. Differences were noted between short and long fliers; the latter producing significantly more lift and showing signs of a flight pattern divisible into rising, steady and falling phases. The short fliers showed only rising and falling phases. Lift and wing-beat frequency were correlated, but it is evident that lift also depends on other variables such as stroke-plane angle, body angle and wing-beat amplitude, which are discussed.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , March 1982 , pp. 17 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, P. S., Cooter, R. J., Chang, P. M. & Hashim, H. B. (1980). The flight capabilities of laboratory and tropical field populations of the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae).—Bull. ent. Res. 70, 589–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gewecke, M. (1975). The influence of the air-current sense organs on the flight behaviour of Locusta migratoria.—J. comp. Physiol. 103, 79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gringorten, J. L. & Friend, W. G. (1979). Wing-beat pattern in Rhodnius prolixus Stål (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) during exhaustive flight.—Can. J. Zool. 57, 391–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. G. (1969). Migration and dispersal of insects by flight.—763 pp. London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Lehane, M. J. & Schofield, C. J. (1976). Preliminary report on flight by some triatomine bugs.—Trans. R. Soc. trop. Med. Hyg. 70, 526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minter, D. (1978). Triatomine bugs and household ecology.—pp. 85–93in Willmott, S. (Ed.). Medical Entomology Centenary 23rd to 25th November 1977. Symposium Proceedings.—144 pp. London, R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.Google Scholar
Schofield, C. J. (1979). The behaviour of Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae): a review.— Bull. ent. Res. 69, 363–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sjogren, R. D. & Ryckman, R. E. (1966). Epizootiology of Trypanosoma cruzi in southwestern North America. Part VIII: nocturnal flights of Triatoma protracta (Uhler) as indicated by collections at black light traps (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae).—J. med. Entomol. 3, 81–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weis-Fogh, T. (1956). Biology and physics of locust flight II. Flight performance of the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria).—Phil. Trans. R. Soc. (B) 239, 459–510.Google Scholar