Butterfly flight, and in particular its erratic trajectory is now
studied, of all places,
in Cornell - see
Erratic Trajectory of Butterfly Flight
"Some
butterflies appear to fly crooked, lurching here and there. Their close
relatives, moths, however appear to fly relatively straight. Why? We have filmed
free butterfly flight under different conditions and extracted their 3D
trajectories. Currently we are analyzing the data in the hopes of figuring out a
correlation between their flight behavior and wing geometry."
Victor
Fet
From: Stephen Blackwell
<sblackwe@UTK.EDU>
Alas my camera was not to hand, but if you can
imagine the sight of a large yellow Swallowtail twirling round and round with
its shadow, then you have got the picture.
Happy belated birthday,
VN!
Dear Entomologically Inclined List
Members,
Stephen Blackwell's post reminds me that the recent sight of a
butterfly's darting movements made me wonder if anyone has studied the flight
pattern of the insect. Why does it move the way it does? Is there a method to
its seeming madness?
Carolyn Kunin
p.s. Little Childe (:>)
has asked me to mention that her favorite Nabokovian reply to The Eternal
Question was missing from the recent post to the list. She thinks it was
something like "Birds of the Future will make way for no cars!" She's a bit
flustered at the prospect of bird flu, though, and may not have got it exactly
right.
Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
Contact the
Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are
read by both co-editors.
Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies