Travels at astounding speeds Science

It’s amazing how these little creatures fly and find themselves distracted and making decisions. They are more sophisticated, more like wings insects than some have imagined.

A team of Russian scientists has discovered that beetles less than half a millimeter in length can uniquely flutter their wings and fly at high speeds.

In a statement issued by the “Le Monde” newspaper (The worldAccording to French author Nathaniel Hersberg, there are 1.3 million known species of insects in the world, and about 10,000 new species are discovered each year, and many interesting facts about these tiny creatures.

Kayaking in the air

The latest of these findings came as part of a study conducted by a team of scientists at the Moscow University of Lomonosov and published in the journal Nature.NaturalValuable Award on January 19th.

Scientists have discovered that a type of beetle in the family Ptinidae, less than half a millimeter in size, can fly strangely and impressively. This type of beetle “roars in the air. This flying pattern helps to achieve extraordinary speed,” said Alexei Bolelov, director of the Entomology Laboratory at Lomonosov University.

Over the years, the team has published a number of articles covering the biological and anatomical details of the main beetle of this family, known as the “Paradoxosa placentis”, whose length does not exceed 0.4 millimeters, but they do not observe its flight. Method.

“This time we have the whole story, and it’s so beautiful,” says Jerome Casas, a professor of ecology at the University of Tours in France who specializes in insects – and applauds the results of the new study.

The wings have been shown solely to give a sense of proportion

Since the nineteenth century, scientists have discovered that some insects have feathers instead of skin, and over the past decades, researchers have come to understand why these types of insects have wings.

With a size of less than a millimeter, these beetles fly through the air as if they were in a viscous liquid. Jerome Casas says comb-shaped wings are more effective than a swimmer’s hands without fingers. , And they weigh less than membrane. “

High-resolution images published in the study show that beetles collected from Vietnam and kept in an open room have rear wings that can draw an “8” shape when flying. “The discovery of this secret was a great surprise to us,” says Sergei Varechenkov, the study’s lead author.

Scientists have found that these wings touch the upper and lower parts of the body in an unusual way. Thanks to careful modeling techniques, the team was able to determine the role of lifts and traction forces in the way these types of beetles fly.

Scientists have discovered that the wings touch the upper and lower parts of the body in an unusual way (web).

Additional questions

Commenting on the shortcomings of the study, Casas added, “It’s amazing to find out how these little creatures fly, how they orient themselves and make decisions. They are so subtle that some winged insects are more than imagined. ? “.

According to the author, Pololov and his team, who have specialized for 20 years in the study of these small creatures, will certainly try to answer this question.