Using a morphologically diverse group of tropical bees, the limits to flight performance using a load-lifting method have been assessed and compared to other flight performance assays. Initial findings suggest that bees possess large performance reserves that can be tapped during demanding flight situations, perhaps insulating the bees from the effects of small-scale changes in the physical environment. This work serves as a first step to investigating the relationship between flight and the physical properties of air. As the most diverse and numerous class of metazoan organisms on earth with over 750,000 described species, insects dominate the terrestrial biosphere.
Flight is dependent on both abiotic and biotic factors.
Global changes in atmospheric gas composition, temperature and insolation potentially affect flight as much as do interactions with conspecifics, predators, and resources. The study of how physical changes in the environment affect insect flight provides a broadly relevant perspective on biotic responses to global change. The study of flight performance of a morphologically diverse group of insects provides a description of what structural diversity is functionally relevant to flight. Changes in relevant structure can then be correlated with changes in flight performance. Using a combination of laboratory and field studies, I will study how physical changes in the flight medium engender concomitant changes in morphology.