Sinnesstyrd flygkontroll - bakomliggande mekanismer för insekternas fantastiska flygförmåga. Multi-Sensory Control of Insect Flight Insects perform some of the most spectacular aerobatic feats observed in nature. Their unparalleled ability to take-off at a moment’s notice, make rapid but highly-controlled turns or home in on small prey or territorial interlopers has ensured their continued mastery over the aerial habitat. To carry out rapid modulations of their wing kinematics, often at frequencies of a few hundred beats per second, insect nervous systems need rapid sensory updates of their flight trajectory. This information is acquired by various sensors distributed over their body including vision, and mechanosensation. Through this collaborative effort, we hope to extend previous studies on the role of individual sensory modalities in flight behavior to now include multiple sensory modalities. The Indian collaborator, Sanjay Sane, has previously studied physics and the mechanosensory control of insect flight, and the Swedish collaborator, Marie Dacke, has worked on the visual modality with special focus on behavioral and physiological aspects of low-light level responses in insects and spiders. Through close exchanges between each laboratory, we aim to combine our expertise in vision and mechanosensation to address how insect brains combine and process information from diverse sensory modalities to generate their spectacular flight repertoire. The secrets of the aerial acrobats The aerobatic maneuvers of insects have long fascinated scientists and engineers alike. The unparalleled ability of the insects to take-off at a moment’s notice, make rapid but highly controlled turns or home in on small prey naturally requires rapid modulations of flight. For this, insect nervous systems require equally rapid sensory updates of their flight trajectory. Various sensors distributed over their body provide the nervous system with this information. One challenge that the insects faces involves integrating and processing the sensory feedback from various modalities as it arrives at the brain with varying time delays. For instance, mechanosensory information is usually transduced rapidly, whereas visual information is slower. Thus, although the input from mechanosensory modalities is available to the insect well in advance of the next wing stroke, the simultaneous visual input may not be available until a few strokes later. How does an insect process two or more sensory inputs with different latencies during flight? How do these latencies influence the time it takes for an insect to respond to each stimulus? These are only two of many questions that we seek to answer within this project. Through an international collaborative effort, we hope to extend our work on the role of individual sensory modalities in flight behavior to now include multiple sensory modalities. The Indian collaborator, Sanjay Sane, has previously studied physics and the mechanosensory control of insect flight, and the Swedish collaborator, Marie Dacke, has worked on the visual modality with special focus on behavioral and physiological aspects of low-light level responses in insects and spiders. Through close interactions between each laboratory, we aim to combine our expertise in vision and mechanosensation to jointly address how insect brains combine and process information from diverse sensory modalities to generate their spectacular flight repertoire. We will focus on maneuvers such as take-offs, sharp turns and landing behaviors that require rapid input. These maneuvers challenge the nervous system to work within the limitations of their sensory latencies. The main tool to record their behaviour will be high-speed videography. Using this set-up, we can recording the flying insects at temporal resolutions below a tenth of a millisecond, sufficient to observe how their kinematics vary from one wing stroke to another. From these recordings we can quantify and characterize how varying visual and mechanosensory feedback influences the different flight behaviors. For example, our previous data suggests that bees crash into a transparent wall placed in their path under bright light conditions, but are able to land on the wall under very dim light. Do insects change their flight strategy based on the feedback it can process better? Because our high speed video cameras are infra-red sensitive, we can film the insects flying also under low visible light. Our approach to the sensory control of flight is novel because we will also compare each behavior across different insect orders. This will help us to understand how insects with vastly different sensory and aerodynamic properties coordinate the complex behaviors necessary for flight, and uncover generalities in their behavioral strategies. From a flight dynamics perspective, the insects we will study encompass diverse qualitative traits. Flies are highly agile flyers capable of sharp, rapid turns in minimal space whereas bumblebees are relatively slower, but can execute controlled landing on swaying flowers. Butterfly flight is erratic, but they can navigate past obstacles and feed from various flowers. Beetle wings are covered by the hard and protective forewing, whose role in flight control remains unstudied. From a visual perspective, our study animals above also include nocturnal and diurnal species with widely varying eye morphology. Such a broad approach is