The Evolution of Insect Flight

The question of the origin of wings and flight, their structural concomitants, and the related aerodynamical issues have been confined largely to armchair speculation in a scattered literature. This book draws a empirically-based picture of how insect flight may have evolved.

This is the first book on this subject since J W S Pringle''s classic Insect Flight was published in 1957. Much has been written since on applied and ecological aspects of flight, but consideration of the question of the origin of wings and flight has been largely confined to armchair speculation in a scattered literature. To make matters worse, much of the recent empirical work has only appeared in Russain. A,K. Brodsky is a leading Russian authority on insect flight, a pioneer in the use of empirical aerodynamic techniques to unravel the mechanisms which underlie insect flight and hence its origins. By uniting fossil, structural, and phylogenetic information with his empirical studies, he draws a coherent, well-substantialed picture of the evolution of insect flight. The text is illustrated by numerous fine line drawings. The first book on insect flight since J.W.S. Pringle''s classic Insect Flight was published in 1957 Written by leading Russian authority in the field - provides Western world with access to much previously unpublished material Draws togther the diverse strands of fossil evidence, structure, phylogeny, aerodynamics, and behaviour to form a coherent picture Beautifully illustrated with numerous fine line drawings