The method of flying mosquitoes is very special.Insects of similar size, such as Drosophila, flap about 200 times per second, while mosquitoes flap 600-800 times at high speed.In order to achieve this high-speed movement, it is also characteristic that the wings are slender and the amplitude of the flapping is very small, about 40 degrees.It is incomparable to the 90 degrees of honeybees, which has been considered to be the smallest so far.
A research group led by Dr. Toshiyoshi Nakata of Chiba University has clarified that this mosquito flapping movement utilizes two aerodynamic force generation mechanisms, "trailing edge vortex" and "rotational drag".
It is known that insects fly by creating a vortex called "leading edge vortex" on the front side of the wing by flapping motion.In this study, we found that mosquitoes generate vortices (trailing edge vortices) on the back side of the wing in addition to the leading edge vortex.Furthermore, it was found that after the aerodynamic force was generated by the leading edge vortex, the rotational drag was generated by rotating the wings at high speed in the longitudinal direction in preparation for the next flapping motion.
It is unclear why mosquitoes fly with such a special mechanism while consuming so much power, but the paper mentions that it may be to evolve other functions such as special communication by flapping sounds.
Paper information: [Nature] Smart wing rotation and trailing-edge vortices enable high frequency mosquito flight.
