School of Physics Nonlinear Science & Mathematical Physics: Prof. Stacey Combes, Harvard University

Our understanding of insect flight mechanics has increased dramatically over the past several decades, but the majority of our knowledge stems from models or studies of relatively simple flight behaviors in controlled lab settings.  In reality, flying insects spend most of their lives engaged in complex flight behaviors, constantly changing their speed, orientation and heading as they interact with other animals, including predators, prey, competitors and mates.  Many insects, particularly pollinators, also engage in frequent interactions with plants, collecting valuable resources from flowers while they navigate through a complex physical environment and avoid collisions with obstacles in their path.  All of an insect’s interactions with other animals and plants take place within the unpredictable aerial environments that characterize most natural habitats, in which they are subjected to a range of unsteady flow conditions, from structured vortices in the wake of objects to fully mixed, chaotic turbulence.  I will discuss projects we are currently performing to explore the biomechanics and behavior of flying insects engaged in each of these types of interactions, including aerial predation in dragonflies, bumblebee maneuvering flight and obstacle avoidance, wing adaptations to mitigate collisional damage, and lab and field experiments concerning insects’ ability to maintain stability in unsteady airflow.