Form and function in corrugated insect wings

Abstract

SELECTION is likely to have resulted in the evolution of insect wings which combine aerodynamic efficiency with a rotational moment of inertia about the wing base small enough to reduce as far as possible the energy expenditure involved in their repeated accelerations. Their construction has to leave them stiff enough to remain aerodynamically efficient when under inertial or aerodynamic load, and free from buckling, however light they become. Insect wings are very light structures—11 g m⁻² in the dragonfly Aeschna cyanea, 16.7 g m⁻² in Locusta migratoria¹ and 7.4 g m⁻² in Tipula sp.².